Claude Lelouch is not the type to keep his tongue in his pocket. In an exclusive interview granted to Gala, the 87-year-old director opens up without taboo about his love and sexual life, which is, to say the least, turbulent. The man who has been married several times and who has now shared the life of the novelist Valérie Perrin for 17 years, does not hesitate to describe himself as “life reporter” to justify his thirst for experiences.
Unbridled sexuality assumed
“I don't smoke, I don't drink, but sex… I don't deprive myself of anything. I want to know everything. I see myself as a reporter of life, so I tried everything “, declares bluntly the husband of Valérie Perrin, whom he married last year. On the menu of his experiences: frequenting swingers clubs and resorting to prostitution. “I have always seen prostitutes, you have to love them, they make men happy. And that goes for women who go to see prostitutes“, he assures, visibly uninhibited on the subject.
Comments which will not fail to shock a part of public opinion, still unaccustomed to hearing a personality of the 7th art so openly mention this type of practices. But Claude Lelouch fully assumes his vision of things, he who confides having “crazy luck“to have Valérie Perrin in his life and who believes that”for one night, beauty alone can be enough to succumb“.
A very free conception of love and fidelity
If Claude Lelouch seems to have found a certain stability with his wife, the novelist Valérie Perrin, he nonetheless maintains a very non-conformist vision of romantic relationships. “Llove wears out quickly if you do it just with your body and not with your head“, believes the filmmaker, for whom “fidelity means nothing” or even it is “sometimes just a lack of ambition”.
Shocking declarations, which echo his filmography often centered on sentimental relationships and the quest for true love. Themes that we should also find in his new feature film, Finally, expected in theaters next month with Kad Merad, Elsa Zylberstein and Michel Boujenah in the main roles. The story of a lawyer who, after a health problem, loses the ability to lie and embarks on an initiatory journey across France to find himself, turning to music. A journey that could well lead him towards love, he who remains convinced that “we spend our lives trying to move towards self-improvement”.
