Screenwriter of Lucky Luke since 2016, Jul, to whom we owe, among other things, Silex and the Citysurveys endless spaces with a mountain of questions in mind, each one more naive than the last. Having fallen into the great plains when he was little, Jul has the honor of having become the commander of the legendary cowboy born in 1946, a character with 80 albums. A new opus arrives on November 15.
Confronting the legend with the real country
The concept of the documentary trilogy proposed by Arte is to take the author and designer on site, in order to verify if the Wild West still has something of Lucky Luke – if it even once resembled him. Jul thus crosses small towns still focused on their central street, with their refreshed but period facades. He questions the town’s banker, two elders who hang out on their porch like the fictional grandpa, the sheriff – who assures him that he doesn’t take a nap with his feet on the desk like in the comic strip. But he still has the star, “on my heart.”
Jul’s questioning, with her colorful albums in hand, turns out to be both fresh and amusing. The visual device is of course perfect, since director Xavier Lefebvre can have fun comparing, confronting Morris’s drawings – the visual material is only taken from his historical albums – with real shots. Canyons, infinite paths, even weapons can then be placed side by side, the real world facing that of the drawing.
A similarity quest game
The enterprise is a game, since it involves looking for similarities, so traveling through this corner of the country tracking down what looks like landscapes, institutions or even people comparable to what was in the boxes. The most surprising thing is the number of matches that the designer finds. There is the banker with her gleaming safe. Elders on their porches. Indians with their large eagle headdresses, which are not attributes for tourists.
Morris thrived on cinema. Hollywood has shaped this mythology of the Wild West. And like a surprising return from fiction to reality, Jul finds authentic traces of this imagery today. “It’s difficult to discern reality from legend,” said Goscinny. Very true.
“In the boots of Lucky Luke”. A documentary series by Jul and Xavier Lefebvre (2023), in three 55′ parts. To be seen on Arte from November 21, on Arte.tv, the app and YouTube.
