“It was very hard!” Why the success of Hibernatus surprised Louis de Funès

The actor was used to box office hits, but the filming of Edouard Molinaro’s comedy was so complicated that he couldn’t believe seeing it work.

TF1 Séries Films is rebroadcasting this Sunday evening Hibernatuscomedy by Edouard Molinaro released in 1969 at the cinema. In this INA video shot shortly after its release, Louis de Funès is surprised by the success of the film, talking about his stormy filming with the director and criticizing his script. With 3.3 million spectators, the film was in fact in the top 5 of the biggest hits of the year, even if we are far from 17 million. The Big Mop or the 11 million of Corniaudthe greatest successes of De Funès in France.

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The pitch ofHibernatusall scientists have dreamed of it: taking a human being through time by freezing him. Faced with this ancestor from 1900, Hubert de Tartas (played by Louis de Funès) will prove to be as devious as possible. At the helm of this original vaudeville: Edouard Molinaro, who had already directed De Funès in Oscar in 1966. The atmosphere on the set was heavy due to the disagreement between the director and the actor. De Funès needs us to react to his gags, Molinaro is not very expansive.

However, the filmmaker agrees to direct Louis de Funès again in Hibernatusbased on a play created in 1957, on one condition: having the approval of producer Alain Poiré for a project that is dear to him: My Uncle Benjaminwith Jacques Brel. It is difficult for him to accept what few filmmakers who have made a film with De Funès recognize: giving up taking credit for the success of his films. “so much is his part of creation.”

“Louis de Funès“, explains Edouard Molinaro in a documentary dedicated to him, also visible on the INA website, “brought a lot of things to the adaptations of plays like Oscar or Hibernatus, a lot of inventions in terms of mime, in terms of the expression of feelings.”

Louis de Funès will publicly admit upon release that he was not easy to get along with on the set (“I used to be anxious, today I’m worried”) and will be surprised by the success ofHibernatus whose scenario he found unfinished.

However, there remain cult moments like the nodding head scene, entirely improvised by Louis de Funès with the complicity of Michael Lonsdale and of course the jig on the first name “Edmée” when Hubert de Tartas reveals to his wife’s grandfather that he is a hibernator. None of this was written.

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