Franck Dubosc shakes up his image with A Bear in the Juraa burlesque thriller where it mixes black humor and suspense. This captivating feature film, inspired by the world of the Coen brothers, skillfully mixes comedy with uncompromising tragedy.
After having played for years the irreverent seducer Patrick Chirac in the saga CampingFranck Dubosc gets a makeover and surprises both in front and behind the camera with A Bear in the Jura. This film mixes black comedy and burlesque thriller. In theaters on Wednesday, this new project reveals a new side of the 61-year-old artist, who moves away from his traditional comic roles to offer a work that is as original as it is unexpected.
A Bear in the Jura plunges us into the heart of the Jura, where Cathy (Laure Calamy) and Michel (Franck Dubosc), a couple managing a Christmas tree farm, find themselves trapped in a case of murder and embezzlement. Two thugs, suspecting the couple of having killed two of their accomplices while stealing two million euros, give them a hard time. The investigation is led by a gendarmerie brigadier played by Benoît Poelvoorde, in a role which surprises as much by its discrepancy as by its humanity.
Franck Dubosc's film, full of tension and black humor, flirts with surrealism. “I wanted laughter to arise naturally, almost implicitly, without breaking the dark atmosphere,” confides the actor. An approach inspired by the work of the Coen brothers, these masters of mixing comedy and absurd violence. “I like the cinema of the Coen brothers. They dare to laugh at serious things. Where they inspired me was to tell me that I could also make people laugh with guns,” he adds. The result is a film where comedy emerges from improbable lines and incongruous situations, without ever lightening the intensity of the story.
For Franck Dubosc, comedy is never gratuitous: “There always needs to be something extra behind the gag or the tragedy,” he explains. This quest for depth, present in all his films as a director, has never been so evident. The actor, known for his popular roles, has been able to reinvent himself with increasingly personal and intimate cinema, far from the codes of mainstream comedy. “By moving on to directing, I move forward, I explore,” he admits. “My luck is to have started as an actor in a very popular cinema, preventing me from locking myself into elitism. This gave me good cardio to go further, to do something else so as not to tire the public.”
Humility and curiosity characterize his journey. Since his beginnings in the 80s, notably alongside Élie Semoun, Franck Dubosc has been able to reinvent himself at each stage of his career. If his love for the stage is still very much alive – he is already working on a fourth feature film – the actor does not rule out a return to his roots, the one-man-show. “I'm not saying it's over,” he says, referring to his desire to reconnect with the public closely, like his friend Dany Boon, who will return to the stage in 2025.
As for Patrick Chirac, his cult character from the saga CampingFranck Dubosc speaks of him with affection: “I am proud of him. I love him. I owe him a lot”. So much so that, even as his career nears the end, he knows he will forever be linked to this iconic role. “I already know that when I die a newspaper will headline: Patrick Chirac is dead“, he concludes with a touch of humility and humor.
With AFP
