The death of Michel Blanc, the Mr. Everyman of French cinema

The comic actor may take on himself all the blunders, shoulder all the ridicule of his contemporaries, he will always remain a form of non-negotiable greatness: that of offering a reflection to banality, of welcoming within himself the mediocrity which we crosses all and, probably, unites us. In any case, this was the contribution of Michel Blanc, a popular actor, who gave substance to Mr. Everyman and managed to humanize beyond all expectations this vague statistic that is the average Frenchman, by making him making it funny, while implicitly conveying a more painful note, the failure of the galley slave, the distress of the loser, a rather poignant form of depression. His small size, his baldness long countered by a mustache, his puppy dog ​​eyes, which could have passed for disadvantages, he inscribed them in the legend of the ordinary, converted into a franchouillard archetype, with a touch of malice and a lot of tenderness.

Coming from the café-theater school, trained in the ranks of the Splendid troupe, which reigned supreme over French laughter for decades, he gained notoriety thanks to the indescribable character of Jean-Claude Dusse in the series of Tannedby Patrice Leconte, a scruff in a vacation club taking rake after rake. He was also this “poor guy” to whom the burly Gérard Depardieu would say sweet nothings, and whom he led to disguise himself, in Evening wear (1986), by Bertrand Blier, which initiated the actor’s dramatic turn and earned him an acting prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Michel Blanc has also, and sporadically, moved on to direct half a dozen films, Walk in the shade (1984) to See how we dance (2018), without giving up his gaming prerogatives. He died in his hospital bed in Paris, on the night of October 3 to 4, following a heart attack at the age of 72.

Michel Blanc was born on April 16, 1952, in Courbevoie (Seine), to a customs declarant father and a typist mother who formed a typical household of the emerging middle class. He grew up in the working-class suburb of Puteaux, between the two-room kitchen pavilion of his parents, soon pushed back to Colombes by the large concrete construction site at La Défense, and the watchmaking shop of his grandparents – a changing landscape. path of urbanization which still leads to vacant lots and the beginnings of rurality. An only child, the child suffered from a heart murmur, and from this physical vulnerability came certain traits of his comic character, often bilious, fearful or nosophobic.

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