They had sworn to see each other more often, otherwise the next time it would be at the cemetery. After a photo session for the 75th anniversary of Paris Match in April, this book was to be the occasion. But the free electron Michel Blanc died at the very moment the work had just been completed. After this shock, The Splendid on the Splendid takes on an even more moving dimension. “We had signed the BAT three days before his death, so we talked a lot with Michel, whereas usually it was two or three times a year,” Thierry Lhermitte remembers, moved. “Being unable to sleep the first night after his death, I reread everything he wrote for this book. It is wonderful and heartwarming.”
The latter is at the origin of the project, and the profits will be donated to a cause dear to him: the Foundation for Medical Research. The idea is to tell the saga of the Splendid through photos, often unpublished, commented on by the protagonists themselves. As in We loved each other so muchtells the story of a group of friends who, despite the vagaries of time, will never have completely dispersed. Uniquely, everyone will succeed solo, each in their own register. But the Splendid is also the history of French society: May 68, Club Med, democratization of ski holidays, memory of the Resistance…
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Initially, there are the benches of the Pasteur high school in Neuilly. Michel Blanc sympathizes with Gérard Jugnot who knows Christian Clavier, a great friend of Thierry Lhermitte. Marie-Anne Chazel then Josiane Balasko will join the troupe. Technician Bruno Moynot will also take the stage. Far from the bourgeois role that would become his trademark, Clavier was briefly tempted by the Communist Party with his friend Lhermitte. “It only lasted a few months,” puts the latter into perspective. “We went to the Huma party to see Pink Floyd, we got bamboozled. Christian never went to any meetings, but I did two or three. The Chinese embassy in more was in Neuilly. We thought the cultural revolution was cool. 'Revolution' sounded good, 'cultural' too. We couldn't imagine the tens of millions of deaths behind it.
“We were never in fashion”
Contrary to the image they may have conveyed, the apprentice actors work hard with a drama teacher, Tsilla Chelton (future Auntie Danielle). Using the Café de la Gare as a model, they launched into the café-theatre. Coluche takes them under his wing. Left by Valérie Mairesse, Lhermitte lived with him for more than a year (“the big party every evening”). Michel Blanc is more skeptical about the star (“he was very generous but he had the generosity of dictators”).
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The rest is famous: the play Loves, Shellfish and Crustaceans becomes The Bronzed on the big screen. The replicas of Tanned people go skiing a you Santa Claus is trash become cult. “At the time, the big successes were The Charlots, Belmondo in comedies. We had some great successes at the cinema for unknown people. But it was really the rebroadcasts and video cassettes that brought us into the culture popular. We have never been fashionable, so we have not gone out of fashion”, analyzes Thierry Lhermitte. In 2006, the great reunion of Tanned 3 make 10 million entries. But resurrecting a national myth is bound to disappoint. Blanc hated the film, Lhermitte still defends it: “They are the same rednecks thirty years later, with the same selfishness, the same bullshit, but also the same friendship. Over time, I think people may have thought that this are heroes. But they are fools, from A to Z, and we like to play that.”
The book ends with the commemorations: Caesar anniversary for the troupe in 2021 on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Splendid Saint-Martin, cover of Paris Match This year. Before the death of Michel Blanc, the desire to reunite on screen tickled them again. “The problem is the writing,” emphasizes Thierry Lhermitte. “Either we all write together, if everyone wants it. Or someone writes for us, but everyone has to like it.” On the other hand, filming together is a treat. There is an instant bond between people who have known each other for fifty years.” The saga may not be over…
The Splendid on the Splendidby Josiane Balasko, Michel Blanc, Marie-Anne Chazel, Christian Clavier, Gérard Jugnot, Thierry Lhermitte and Bruno Moynot. Le Cherche-Midi, 256 p., €26.50.
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