PORTRAIT. Pierre Richard, starring in the film La Vallée des fous, filmed in Seine-Maritime

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In The Valley of Foolsthe new film by Xavier Beauvois shot in Seine-Maritime, in theaters on November 13, 2024, the legendary absent-minded man keeps his feet on the ground to subtly play the father of Jean-Paul Rouvea weirdo who wants to do the Vendée Globe aboard a sailboat stationed… in his garden! Boarding with Pierre Richardwho at 90 years old and in 80 films, continues to reinvent himself.

Pierre Richard kept the joyful smile of a child

Cell phone in one hand, cigarette in the other, Pierre Richard is on a set that is as discreet as it is available. It's 10 a.m. and he has to film a Christmas Eve scene with his fictional grandchildren, Madeleine Beauvois and Joseph Olivennes.

Action ! The young girl hands her grandfather a gift: “To think that I had to wait 89 years to have a Breton bowl with my name on it!” » Behind his combo, Xavier Beauvois marvels at touring with one of the heroes of his youth. With a mischievous blue eye, Pierre Richard says to the filmmaker: “I couldn't say 59 years old instead of 89? » The whole team laughs.

The tall blond who has turned white keeps the joyful smile of a child. “He was the team’s security blanket. When Pierre arrived on set, any tension evaporated. I was amazed that at his age, he knew his lines with a razor and without earpieces! », says Gioacchino Campanella, co-writer of the film.

A film shot in Vattetot-sur-Mer

If the story takes place in Port-la-Forêt, in Finistère, within an enclave of enlightened sailors hoisting their dream of offshore racing higher than the mast of their boat, Beauvois preferred Vattetot-sur-Mer , a Norman village neighboring his own, to install his cameras.

I realized the strangeness of the story while playing it. When we met on the grass to say goodbye to Jean-Paul Rouve who was getting on his boat, I was as moved as when I saw my friend Malinovsky leave, who came second at the Route du Rhum… Except that there, the guy is going around the world 40 meters from his house, it's crazy! This man, who faced with his boat being dry, decided to stop drinking while racing the Vendée Globe in almost real conditions via the Virtual Regatta application.

Uncomfortable challenges delight the actor. He experienced his maritime adventure aboard Michel Malinovsky's sailboat, in the middle of winter, linking Saint-Tropez to La Rochelle… “I froze for 15 days and lost 10 kg! »

Losing the “North”

Pierre Richard had been waiting for 30 years to work with the director of Of Men and Godssince his agent dissuaded him from starring in his first film, the harsh Nord… “It was a great mistake to have said no to Xavier, it would have given me the opportunity to play like Bourvil on both counts, comedy and drama.”

After having filmed with the greatest comedy directors, Zidi, Veber, Oury, Molinaro and Mocky, the actor savors with Beauvois his taste for the truth provoked by the unexpected. “The script is a basis for work, his film comes to life when Xavier starts shooting it. When the scene is over, he doesn't say cut, he lets us improvise. I love this freedom he gives us, we always have the impression of inventing. »

Every evening, the filmmaker sends him a text: “You were sublime today, usually, you are great, you are progressing quickly. Tender kisses.” All in sobriety and gentleness to play this father confronted with his son's alcoholism, Pierre Richard is not just this comic ludion whose name alone has become an expression describing clumsiness…

Genesis of a character

At the beginning, he was not aware that his lanky appearance and elastic gestures were a charming asset. It was Yves Robert who was the first to perceive him and write him a tailor-made role in Alexander the Blessed. “He knew who I was long before I did. He told me: “You’re not an actor, you’re a character. Make your own cinema!” “. Advice that does not fall on deaf ears.

A friend recommended that he read Ménalque in The characters de La Bruyère, who instilled in him the idea of Distractedhis first film made in 1970. The success was immediate and the cult roles followed one another: The Big Blond, The Mustard Goes Up in My Nose, The Race to the Shallot, The Carapate, The Umbrella Shot, The Goat, The Fugitives… while making his own films: Alfred's Misfortunes, I know nothing, but I will say everything, I am shy, but I take care of myself, It's not me, it's him… If he invents a figure of speech, he denies being his own inspiration.

Distraction is a flaw that people love, but it locked me into roles. The other day, a taxi driver asked me if I'm as distracted in life as I am in my films. I tell him no, it was only in the first one. In the others, I am unlucky, unhappy, unadapted to life, but not distracted… I get out of the taxi and arrive in my hall, there is a knock on the door: you have forgotten your suitcase!

For a long time, Pierre Richard will be unhappy to be reduced by criticism to French laughter. Claude Sautet said to him one day: “I adore you, but I can't imagine you as a normal guy walking on a sidewalk with a bag and a baguette sticking out! You are an angel passing by.”

A squire turned acrobat

Nothing predestined Pierre-Richard Defays to become an actor. Raised in a castle in a bourgeois family who worked in the steel industry in Valenciennes, he discovered his vocation at the age of 14, one day off school when he went to the cinema. On the screen, he is hypnotized by Danny Kaye, an American comedian who sings, dances and twirls. Like a Madman Goes to Wartitle of the film, he decides that he will be an actor or nothing. “I took advantage of my parents' divorce, because my father was against it, so my mother was for it! My grandfather saw me as a polytechnician.”

To reassure his family, he became a physiotherapist. A white blouse soon swapped for a famous black shoe… For a long time, he suffered from fatherhood, an absence which echoed his choice of roles as The Toy by Francis Veber, his favorite film, the story of a billionaire who compensates for his failure by spoiling his cherub to the point of “giving” him his employee, played by Pierre Richard, whom he asks for. “Father-son relationships have always interested me. In The Valley of Foolswith Jean-Paul, it ends well. For me, the lack of relationship with a father is irreparable,” confides Pierre Richard, who admits to being a better grandfather to his six grandchildren than he was a father to his two sons, including the saxophonist by Blues Trottoir. Difficult when you shoot three films a year…

Always on deck

After 60 years of career, acting remains his safeguard. A nice snub to the teacher who told him that he wouldn't achieve anything in life if he spent his time making his classmates laugh. Actor, screenwriter, director and producer, notably of films by Resnais and Cavalier, he likes to be where you don't expect him. If he says no to De Funès to play Wing or thighbecause he does not feel the script (which Fufu had not even read!), he said yes to Depardieu whose idea he had to form their legendary duo which Lino Ventura refused.

He doesn't forget what his friend Michel Bouquet told him before his death: “I'm going to stop playing… I think about it every day.” He thinks about his projects: after just one on stage, he has just made his ninth film, The Man Who Saw the Bear Who Saw the Man.

I thought all this was incidental, I realize that it is essential. One fine day, I would say to myself, shit, I have to stop. I'm going to be very unhappy because ultimately, I live when I play. Between the two, it's a space that I'm rushing to fill…

When he is not filming, Pierre Richard shares the life of Ceyla Lacerda, a former Brazilian model, met at Mylène Demongeot and Marc Simenon, and enjoys his vineyards in Aude where he has been producing wine for 40 years. The city dweller has become an earthling and the actor, a tragedian.

In 2023, he won his first acting prize in Rome for Wall Angelby Lorenzo Bianchini. “My drama career begins now!” I got this prize even though I don't say a word in the film, after having won the Molière for Monsieur X by Mathilda May, where I don't speak either. As soon as I shut my mouth, I'm never as good! »

In The Valley of Foolsit is however he who has the most beautiful line: “Your father thought he was going around the world on his boat, but he is currently going around his world”.

Portrait taken by Dominique Thiéry

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