Beachcomber Magazine 05

Gérard Jugnot THE COMEDY OF LIFE LA COMÉDIE DE LA VIE The legendary French actor Gérard Jugnot has come to Mauritius for the Théâtrales festival initiated in 2015 by the producer Pascal Legros and his sponsor Beachcomber. An adventure full of laughter and friendship. Comédien légendaire, Gérard Jugnot s’est invité l’année dernière à l’île Maurice dans le cadre du festival Les Théâtrales, initié en 2015 par le producteur Pascal Legros et son partenaire sponsor Beachcomber. Une aventure placée sous le sceau du rire fraternel. BY FANNY RIVA PHOTOGRAPHS NATHALIE BAETENS H e writes about his life ( Le Dictionnaire de ma vie , 2018) and inhabits his roles passionately, often with a mixture of derision, comedy and despair. His stage costumes reveal the en- fant terrible who used to spend his time “ clowning around ”. Born in Paris in May 1951, the son of a building contractor, he grew up in the northern suburb of Puteaux. “ I went into acting thanks to the co- medy sketches I used to do in the scouts! ” This vocation continued at the lycée Pasteur in Neuilly where he met fellow comedians Christian Clavier, Michel Blanc and Thierry Lhermitte, “ my lifelong friends ”. The merry band, with the addition of Marie-Anne Chazel, created the Troupe du Splendid in 1974, “ the great era of café-théâ- tre ”. Their play Amour, coquillages et crustacés was adapted for film by Patrice Leconte, resulting in the famous Les Bronzés ( French Fried Vacation ). The year 1979 saw the release of the hilarious sequel, Les Bronzés font du Ski . On stage, the Splendid wrote cult plays: Le père Noël est une ordure ( Santa Claus is a Stinker ) (1979) and Papy fait de la résistance ( Gramps is in the Resistance ) (1980). Suddenly in the public eye, the actor’s ca- reer took off, as he starred in films directed by Jean-Marie Poiré, Edouard Molinaro and others, and eventually got behind the camera himself. In 1991, he directed Une Époque formidable , which tells the story of an executive who finds himself on the dole, and becomes homeless. Then in the triumphant 2000s came Meilleur espoir féminin , and Monsieur Batignole . As an actor, he made Les Choristes (Christophe Barratier) and reunited with the Splendid in Les Bronzés 3: Amis pour la vie . COMEDY AND MELANCHOLY “ Laughter is essential. Laughter with , not at , which encourages hatred or scorn, ” he says. “ Laughter adds lightness to drama and drama gives a bit of weight to laughter. ” After the serious clown, obnoxious Santa and memorable bronzé , he plays Aymé, a rich and tender-hearted husband deceived by his young mercenary wife, in La Raison d’Aymé by Isabelle Mergault. Underneath the laughter, Gérard Jugnot – who admits being “ a reasonable sort of man ” – is both poetic and perspicacious. “ A comedy is a tragedy that stops just in time. We laugh at a mis- fortune that happens, not to us, but to someone else. The magic is in transforming the blackness, the tragedy, into laughter and fun, ” says Jugnot, who also directs the play. “ In real life, I try to see my worries through rose-coloured lenses. I’m an optipessimist. The characters I create are those I have managed never to become. They’re my nightmares! ” Passionate about everything he loves what he calls life’s gifts: friendship, laughter and poetry. So of course, when the Paris theatre director Pascal Legros, with the help of his sponsor Beachcomber, launched the festival, Gérard immediately came on board. “ In general, comedy is difficult to export. And yet, in Mauritius, the audience is tremendously open- minded. There is so much cultural, ethnic and linguistic diversity. Everyone speaks French. Dialogue comes easily and laughter is from the heart. ” The 2020 edition of Les Théâtrales will be held at the Caudan Theatre in Port Louis from 26 May to 6 June. Gérard Jugnot will step aside for Richard Berri. So long, and… see you soon! 