Claude Lelouch and Kad Merad: the beautiful story

Paris Match. The way you met could almost be part of a Claude film, it's so unexpected and funny, right?
Kad Merad. That’s clear! I was getting on a train to return from Burgundy to Paris when I happened to see Valérie Perrin, Claude's wife, arriving in the same carriage. She almost missed that train! We had met before but we didn't really know each other. I'll greet her, we'll talk. I, who am rather shy in life, ended up confiding to him what I would never have dared to say to Claude, that I would dream of filming with him one day. I grew up with his films, they made me want to be an actor, I dreamed of watching Lino Ventura or Jean-Louis Trintignant.

Claude Lelouch. At that time, I was casting for “Finally”, I saw all the actors in the Place de Paris, without finding my Lino, which rarely happens to me. Valérie calls me and tells me about her meeting. And there, the click is immediate. It was obvious, Kad was the one I was looking for. It ticks all the boxes. Because it's a very complex role. We needed a musician, a man who goes out of his way to be attractive, who can be as light as he is dark, even disturbing at times. All this happened very quickly. A month later, we started filming.

K.M. You don't get many roles like that in your life. This famous meeting between an actor and a character only happens three or four times in a career.

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Lino Ventura is an actor that I adored. Like many French people, I watched it on TV on Sunday evening while dreaming

Kad Merad

Playing the son of Lino Ventura's character in “The Happy New Year”, is it intimidating?
K.M. No, that made me even more upset. Because Lino Ventura is an actor that I adored. Like many French people, I watched it on TV on Sunday evening while dreaming.

CL Sandrine Bonnaire, who plays your sister, tells you at one point: “You look like a dad with less hair!” [Il rit.]

Claude, why this nod to “The Happy New Year”?
CL There are some of my films that have left a little more of an impact than others. When I make “The Happy New Year”, I explain to Lino Ventura that he has just left the group of friends from “Adventure is Adventure” [Brel, Maccione, Denner…, NDLR]. Everyone must enter a more serious phase of their life. He does one last heist, finds love, but he ends up in prison. For me, the Lino of “Finally”, performed by Kad, was conceived behind bars. And the child will one day say to his dad: “I will become a lawyer to get you out of this.” I love these turns in our lives. When I embark on this “sequel”, I tell Valérie that I am going to make my last film.

Putting yourself in someone else's shoes forces you to become tolerant. Like a lawyer who must find the loophole to defend an accused

Claude Lelouch

You say it every time, Claude!
CL Yes, but I'm at an age where I can allow myself to say it a little more. [Il sourit.] And take all the risks. With “Finally”, I wanted to finish my films and wrap up my stories and the themes dear to my heart. For those who have put up with me for sixty years, it's like looking through a family album. I filmed the loves of my life, men and women who were a little less disgusting than the others, who amazed me a little more than the others. Whether it’s Yves Montand in “Vivre pour vivre” or Johnny Hallyday in “Salaud, on t’aime”.

It's also a film about lies and sex. We didn't know you that head-on…
CL We can never thank the liars enough for not telling us the truth. The truth is essential, fundamental, but it hurts very, very badly. Whereas lying is a dream. And we never die of a dream overdose… When Kad pretends to be a defrocked priest, an aggressor or a director of porn films, he knows that he is going to test the person opposite. Putting yourself in someone else's shoes forces you to become tolerant. Like a lawyer who must find the loophole to defend an accused.

K.M. It's true that the film takes risks. But I didn't make life too complicated to play Lino, even if he's a very complex character. He is a star of the bar who is reaching a point of no return. Who gave a lot of himself for others, who saw their small and big turpitudes, their lies. And who surely missed out on a life he secretly dreamed of.

CL Kad brought lots of little things to Lino that weren't in the script. I was in paradise. I quickly realized that Kad's arrival in the project was a blessing. When we shot the scene with the defrocked priest, I looked at him through the camera lens and I said to myself: “It’s good, it works wonderfully.”

When my mother hid us in Nice to avoid the raids, she chose a cinema to escape the Germans

Claude Lelouch

Claude, religion is more and more present in your films…
CL The closer you get to the finish line, the more you become a believer, and it's the same for everyone. If God exists, you might as well play the game. I have witnessed so many miracles in my life that I would be very ungrateful not to be a believer. My mother was Catholic and my father Jewish and I quickly realized that the scenario was the same. It’s the staging that changes. And in the name of this staging, we kill each other. You can say anything to everyone if you find the right way to say it.

It's almost a parable about the world we live in today. Does he worry you?
CL I think I experienced fantastic things. I am certainly a child of the war but, even in those moments, when my mother hid us in Nice to avoid the raids, she chose a cinema to escape the Germans. I have seen the world progress in incredible ways: the first paid leave, the liberation of women, the escape that has become possible with travel, modern tools… In that sense, it's an incredible life. But history is an eternal beginning. You simply have to choose carefully the one who has the right to press the button that can tip the world into the better or into the abyss. It's dizzying. But you have to have faith in human beings. Otherwise, we're all dead.

With Claude, everything is permitted, everything is possible. Above all, we must not be surprised or ask questions.

Kad Merad

Kad, you discovered Claude's way of filming, by inventing dialogue during takes, a sort of live cinema. Not too destabilized?
K.M. I come from the world of sketches, improvisation, live reactions. With Claude, everything is permitted, everything is possible. Above all, you should not be surprised or ask questions. You should not try to want to be beautiful. I loved working like that. I like being surprised…

CL And it's true that I've always had more fun with experienced actors than with beginners, because they want to show you that they are actors. When you tour with Belmondo, Trintignant, Dujardin, they have already done everything. I'm here to make them break other records.

K.M. Being an actor means stopping pretending…

What I love about cinema is bringing incredible things to my actors.

Claude Lelouch

CL What I love about cinema is making my actors experience incredible things. They just have to have the talent for it. You like me, we have nothing left to prove, so we had fun taking risks

K.M. Claude can afford it. Because at the end he always has the little sentence that will touch you.

In the film, Lino walks around with a trumpet in hand. As always, Music plays a central role in the film, this time with Ibrahim Maalouf…
CL Music is a wonderful director of actors. This is why I always record the original soundtracks before my shoots. Unlike words, music never hurts. We see this when Kad's character sings with his daughter.

Even if I was already thinking about theater, it's true that I started with music

Kad Merad

What we know less is that Kad is also a musician and singer…
CL I had seen him at Restos du coeur. And then, when I heard him sing in the studio, I told him that he had the voice of Yves Montand. Barbara Pravi, who plays his daughter, was also amazed.

K.M. Even though I was already thinking about theater, it's true that I started with music. As an amateur, but who earned his living by trading in cafes. I wanted to get out of my suburbs and become an artist. I was a drummer. Afterwards, I never wanted to make it my job. But I like when Gaëtan Roussel or others call me asking if I'm available one evening to come and do a duet on stage. Embarking on the adventure of an album is something else. But if a real project took shape with an author, a composer, I wouldn't say no. I'm incapable of writing and composing, that's for sure. Even if I have things to say.

And you, Claude, do you still have things to say?
CL Look at my desk [Il montre le scénario de la suite de “Finalement”, NDLR]. It will be a film in three parts. If I have the opportunity to make this 52nd film, then I will dare everything. I also owe that to Kad, he gave me back the desire.

K.M. A few days ago, on a train, between two dates of the promotional tour, Claude started filming me, as usual, from the ground up, for this sequel. Claude is the only director I know who has such passion. He can convince his team to interrupt their lunch break to go and film a candid shot, because the light is beautiful or he has an idea that comes to him suddenly. It's rare. And above all, while you told me that this would be your last film, it makes me happy to have contributed, in my very small way, to your desire to continue filming. You have no idea how proud I am of this!