To discover Club 13, the discreet kingdom of Claude Lelouch, at 15, avenue Hoche, in Paris, very close to Parc Monceau, you must first pass through a wrought iron gate, then a glass door. On the right are Les Films 13, the offices of the filmmaker’s production company. Going down a long staircase, the visitor passes a restaurant and a reception room. Still further down, it reaches the club’s famous projection room. Once again, a staircase, at the bottom of which appear editing rooms, another projection room, while on the walls are displayed photos and posters of the French director’s films.
When Claude Lelouch acquired Club 13 in the late 1960s with money earned from the worldwide success ofA man and a woman, Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1966, Oscar for best foreign film and best original screenplay the following year, he dreamed of a cinema house, like the studios and production offices built by Jean-Pierre Melville in a former garage at 25 bis, rue Jenner, in Paris, in 13e arrondissement.
“I wanted to create a working tool for myself, to make my films where I wanted and when I wanted. I made fifty-one, without realizing it, thanks to the success ofAnd man and a woman », notes the director, who has just celebrated his 87the birthday and is about to release his new film, Eventuallywith Kad Merad.
13, his lucky number
When he bought it, 15, avenue Hoche may have been a private mansion, but it was above all a ruin. We had to break down the cellars, chase away the rats, breathe life into a ghost place. Claude Lelouch wanted to build his estate, 1,000 square meters on four levels, in the golden triangle of the Champs-Elysées, then the center of gravity of French cinema. There were the largest cinemas in the capital, as well as the most important production houses and talent agencies.
The ideal would have been for the building to be located at 13 Avenue, the director’s lucky number. One of his sailboats was called Friday the 13th. The first and last name of Claude Lelouch total thirteen letters. His year of birth, 1937, is a multiple of 13. Even his cell phone number ends in 13 (“a coincidence”, he admits). When one of his films is released, it is generally the thirteenth day of the month. Eventuallyis no exception to the rule, since it arrives on screens on November 13.
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