GUEST RTL – Death of Michel Blanc: Leconte tells how the actor became “Monsieur Hire”

After finishing filming Tandem (1987), producer Philippe Carcassonne said to Patrice Leconte: “Okay, what do we do? Do you have any ideas in mind, any projects?” The director and screenwriter always wanted to do a remake of Panic (by Julien Duvivier, 1946), “one of my favorite films”. Response from Carcassonne: “We are not going to do a remake. You are going to do a new adaptation.”

This film “was adapted from a novel by Georges Simenon”, The Engagement of Monsieur Hire (1933). “I read it and I quickly saw the possibility of making another adaptation and above all to make a film that captivates me“, confided Patrice Leconte at the microphone of RTL.

When writing this adaptation with Patrick Dewolf, “we weren’t thinking about actors. Let’s write for the characters and we’ll see. But Sandrine Bonnaire floated confusedly above our writing sheets.”

The presence of Michel Blanc “was decided much later, once everything was finished […] There were several avenues, several ideas.” It is true that the actor with the conquering baldness “does not at all resemble Monsieur Hire as Simenon describes him. A somewhat translucent, pale type. It was more like Jacques Villeret.”

Michel Blanc “had a good scare”

Why did you choose Michel Blanc? “For several reasons,” replied Patrice Leconte. “It allowed me to make a film with an ex-Bronzés and take it to different terrain.” Also, “I think that unconsciously, I was reassured by venturing into somewhat new, never-trodden territory myself.”

Michel Blanc, suddenly disappeared Thursday October 3, “had a good scare, an engine scare”. “He said to me: ‘But I’ll be boring, Patrice.'” In the film, he’s not “boring.” It is “mysterious, enigmatic, disturbing, reassuring.” A new role basically for someone who was usually “a very expressive actor”.

At the end of a “very joyful” shoot while the film “was sometimes a little dark”, the actor told him he returned home in the evening alone. “He ate a little soup. Then he went to bed. He had become a bit of Mr. Hire.”

Patrice Leconte finally confided his great pride in seeing “this film selected at the Cannes Film Festival. This film was very applauded, very loved”. What changed “the life” of the director of Les Bronzés. “I was a fairly French filmmaker and thanks to Cannes, the film was sold almost everywhere in the world. From Mr Hiremy work has been known outside of France.”

Read more