Death of Michel Blanc, “anxious clown” of French cinema

(Paris) Eternal Jean-Claude Dusse in The Bronzeda major actor in comedic cinema in the 1980s before moving towards dramatic roles and a career as a director, Michel Blanc died at the age of 72 on the night of Thursday to Friday, sparking a torrent of reactions.

The actor, who saw himself as an “anxious clown”, suffered a heart attack in the evening and was transported to a Parisian hospital where he died, his entourage told AFP, confirming information from Paris Match.

“Fuck, Michel… What did you do to us…”, reacted on Instagram Gérard Jugnot, his accomplice from the Splendid comedy troupe who expressed, “with one voice”, “his immense pain”, in a press release to AFP.

“Michel my friend, my brother, my partner,” declared Josiane Balasko, also a member of this troupe who guided them towards success with The Bronzed et Tanned people go skiingand will make the character of Jean-Claude Dusse, his “misunderstandings” and his lame flirting plans a legend.

The Head of State Emmanuel Macron spoke of the loss of a “monument of French cinema” while Prime Minister Michel Barnier, “very moved and very sad”, saluted the memory of a “formidable actor who gave us makes you laugh.”

In the cinema, Michel Blanc has long embodied the archetype of the loser, bald, skinny and mustachioed as exasperating as he is endearing, notably in Walk in the shade (1984), which he had directed, or Come to my house, I’m staying with a friend (1981).

“At the time, we wrote characters who were quite close to us. Jean-Claude Dusse, it was clearly for me […]. I quickly became afraid that I would be associated with it all my life,” he told Paris Match in spring.

Dramatic roles

Breaking his image, he then took other paths with dramatic roles like that of the transvestite Antoine in Evening wear (1986) by Bertrand Blier, or the disturbing Mr Hire (1989) by Patrice Leconte, based on a book by Georges Simenon, gaining in thickness and gravity.

Later, he would play a cold and methodical ministerial chief of staff in State Exercisewhich earned him a César in 2012.

“It’s a type of role that I dreamed of, but I wasn’t sure that you would accept me in this role, that the public would accept me in these roles and so I thank you for giving me the “authorization to continue in this direction and to continue trying to be demanding,” he declared, visibly moved, when receiving his prize.

A hard worker, a perfectionist, Michel Blanc knew how to use his complexes and his writing talent to explore disenchantment and shape the characters in his films, particularly those he had directed as Severe Fatigue (1994) et Kiss whoever you want (2002).

The actor Pierre Niney also paid tribute to a “huge actor, funny and profound, simple and touching”, whose son he had played in Our 18th birthday (2008). “I knew I wanted to be an actor thanks to this kind of encounter,” he wrote.

Contrary to his comic character, the filmmaker Patrice Leconte, who directed him several times, spoke on RTL of “a very original, extremely singular type, quite secret in the end”. “I feel like he was very protective of himself.”

In an interview with Télérama, he himself did not hide his dark side. “I am not at all a sad clown, but an anguished clown,” he said, adding “but who is not anguished?” What is the human condition? Not knowing why we are here, not knowing how we are going to die.”

France 2 rebroadcasts Friday in the first part of the evening I find you very beautifula surprise success where the actor plays a widowed farmer looking for a wife, and France 3 will broadcast Monday evening Very tiredwhich he directed, on the throes of fame.