“We spent our time looking at people, making fun of them, of us too!” : the crazy story of the Splendid told by Gérard Jugnot

You found many unpublished documents for this book retracing the history of the Splendid, how did you experience this flashback?

It's 50 years of our lives… It's funny to see memories resurface, photos that I didn't know, or that I had forgotten. It doesn’t make us any younger! It interested me because I had already written part of this story in a book, A wonderful time (Grasset), I recounted my feelings about this time.

Thierry had the idea for this new book because he wanted to make it a great operation for the Foundation for Medical Research.

It was a way of doing something together again because we no longer have time to get together and I'm very proud of the book, it's very joyful, very generous and I think it works very well.

And the fact that everyone could give their point of view – which is never the same – was interesting. Especially since we hadn't read what others had written. That's what was quite moving, seeing what people thought of each other, what we perhaps hadn't always said to each other.

It's quite disturbing and it takes on even more strength and emotion with the disappearance of Michel which was a big blow to us. He left the day before the drunken person was released. It was the last thing he wrote.

Were you surprised by the extent of the emotion aroused by his disappearance across the country?

It was crazy to see how much people had adopted us, it was very strong, we experienced magnificent things thanks to this audience who never left us.

You didn't have a new project together before Michel Blanc's death?

There was something lying around, it was with actors from Splendid but it wasn't written by Splendid. All of this is somewhat put on hold given the circumstances.

But I believe that Michel would never have wanted to remake a film, it was the first one which “suffered” both from the protective and somewhat stifling side of the group, so he did not write the second Tannedhe did not write Santa Claushe's not in there.

He had a slightly different place from the start.

Yes and we all have separate places, it's a collective of individualists. That's what makes me very proud, is that we said “we” for fifteen years and then everyone said “I” successfully, it's quite rare. It's a group where there has never been a leader and where everyone has led their own boat and continues to lead it.

What brings you together?

I think it's the subtitle of the book: “We had so much fun.” We met in high school, we laughed like idiots, we heckled a lot, but we were very serious in our heckles and in our derision…

I think it's derision, the common denominator, a certain laughter. It had to make everyone laugh. That's why the films were quite complicated, because when we were writing, we threw out lots of ideas and as long as they weren't adopted unanimously, we rejected them.

A lot of things were thrown away. That's why each of us made films separately. The big joke, when it didn't make us laugh, was to say “you'll keep it for your film, for your next play”. I even made films that were continuations of our writings. When I did Peacekeeperit was a version of the comic-dramatic club.

Grandpa resists et Mr Batignoleit was also another way of approaching the same subject. We can even think thatA wonderful time suspicious on Félix's side.

Overall, there was very little room for emotion in our shows and in our films, this was also the group's problem, except perhaps a little in Santa Claus with Keyboard, a little trick in The Bronzed. Which is normal, when we were together, there wasn't one point of view, it was a six-person point of view.

We then made our more personal films with our sensibilities, our way of telling life.

But you still collectively have a keen sense of observation of your contemporaries…

We spent our time looking at people, making fun of them, of us too, of our parents. Everyone had their role. That's what made us successful, that we didn't step on each other's toes.

Michel had a wonderful sense of dialogue, I was more concerned with visual things and visual gags. Christian was more insistent on the characters, Thierry also on a certain ferocity. Josiane was always a little behind, but she had flashes that were important. Marie-Anne defended her piece of fat. Everyone tried to pull the sheet so that everyone was well served.

This is what gave rise to these cult characters, notably in Santa Claus, however, initially, the roles were not distributed in this way.

Yes, they absolutely wanted me to act as Katia in transvestite, it made them laugh.

I didn't want to shave my mustache and it bothered me to put on makeup every day. Christian interpreted it divinely, so there are no regrets.

These cult replicas are now part of everyday language…

We are very happy about that, very proud. But hey, we didn't sit around the table to write a cult film, we found something that made us laugh and it turned out that we hit the nail on the head and people took hold of it, it's a great chance.

How do you analyze this deep and lasting bond that you have established with the French, from generation to generation?

I don't explain it, I see it. As Jouvet said, “success justifies everything, but explains nothing”. Maybe there was a little talent, a little work and we were lucky enough to be in tune with the world in which we live. Afterwards, it’s true that it’s fortunate to see that these films don’t go out of style.

Like the films we made separately, I'm very proud that Scout always, Pinot simple cop, are multibroadcast as The Choristers, or Mr Batignoleor that Visitors, Very tired, Walking in the shade or Cursed lawn.

It's a little bit of pride to know that many films praised at the same time have fallen into oblivion, while we were looked down upon a little.

Do you have any new projects together?

I don't know at all, but we are very open. I hope to make a film where there will undoubtedly be Thierry.

I'm also happy with what I'm doing with the younger generations, I'm also filming at the moment with Christophe Barratier Children of the ResistanceI also found Nicolas Benamou for We should have gone to Greece (Gérard Jugnot was also recently showing in Neuilly-Poissy, by Grégory Boutboul).

Do you continue to see each other?

We spent our youth together, now everyone has their own life, each their own path, but we don't lose sight of each other, we go and see each other, at the theater, in the films.

I hadn't seen Michel for a long time. Unfortunately, we found ourselves in circumstances that we would have liked to avoid.

With this crown of flowers in the form of a last nod to Michel Blanc on the day of his funeral…

We made a very nice gesture from “Colleagues of La Française d’Intensity”, it’s a kind of stupid company that we had created in our first theater, but they didn’t put it out there. the Church remained on the square.

They thought they had gone to the wrong Church (laughter), that made us laugh in our sadness.