Marsupilami: for Philippe Lacheau and Jamel Debbouze, comedy has nothing to apologize for

Making people laugh is serious. Philippe Lacheau and Jamel Debbouze prove it by comparing their visions of comedy around Marsupilami. Gag strategies, relationship with the cinema, legacy of Alain Chabat, contempt for the profession: interview on the king of French cinema.

The meeting was not easy. Philippe Lacheau embodies a comedy where each gag is prepared like a choreography. His films (Babysitting, Alibi.com, Nicky Larson…) are machines calibrated for the general public, with box office scores that are dizzying. Jamel comes from improv, and he has this ability to transform any situation into a comedy moment by his mere presence. They were found around the Marsu.

The Marsupilami, this mythological creature imagined by Franquin in the 1950s, has become a symbol of Franco-Belgian comics. Alain Chabat made a splash in 2012. Thirteen years later, how can we return to such a monument without making a mistake? How to make a film that is neither a sequel nor a remake, but another vision? This is the whole point of Marsupilami, which brings together two schools of French comedy around a yellow creature with a disproportionate tail. A risky bet.

At the Pathé Palace bar in Paris, Philippe Lacheau and Jamel Debbouze have just finished the photo shoot. They lent themselves to everything that Julien Lienard, the photographer of First. Around them, the staff is busy: their large suitcases are already there, ready for the tour of rooms that awaits them in the next hour.

The excitement is palpable. It’s a laugh, it’s a joke. And when we approach for the interview, Jamel says with a big smile: “Ah well, we’re happy to see you for this film. Because we like Première, but we have the impression that you like us a little less when we come to defend comedies.” He says that while laughing. But it hides something deeper. The interview has just started.

PREMIERE: Jamel, can I follow up on what you just said? Is there a problem with comedy in the press?

JAMEL DEBBOUZE: Not just in the press! In the environment in general, in the profession. I’m glad you asked because I wanted to talk about it, my friend. It’s true that, generally speaking, except among the public, we suffer from a certain condescension. Philippe, this comes up often in your interviews. It seems like the criticism really hurts you…

JD: He’s more sensitive than me.

PHILIPPE LACHEAU: (Laughs.) We make films for the public. This is our priority. We are therefore happy if people are happy, if we hear the laughter in the room. Good reviews come later, it’s a bonus. But it’s true that Première, like all your colleagues who talk about cinema… As soon as you have the mission to defend the seventh art, we have the feeling of a form of condescension. But maybe that’s because you’re not seeing the film the way you should.

JD: That changes everything, my friend. I swear it changes everything.

We often hear this argument. It’s a bit easy, isn’t it?

PL: No, because it is not a question of legitimacy, it is a question of context. We need to have your opinion. We just say that you don’t see the film in the conditions for which it was designed.

JD: The question is not paying for your ticket. It won’t change anything about the problem. The problem is, you’ll never be in a room with 300 people laughing. And that’s the film. The film is a collective experience.

PL: We make films calibrated to be seen in public, to pass them off as a live show. And we work just as much, if not more, on a comedy as on a drama.

JD: That’s a beautiful sentence. Because in the dark, in a tragedy, I will never know if you were hit or not. Whereas for comedy, if it doesn’t laugh, it doesn’t laugh. If the gag doesn’t work, we get depressed. If I don’t laugh, I can stop eating for three days. I swear, it happened to me.

PL: I feel like it’s more scientific to do comedy than drama. There is something almost mathematical. And it goes further: we all cry about the same things, but we don’t all laugh about the same things.

JD: That’s why achieving unanimity on a comedy is harder.

And Marsupilami, was that challenge?

PL: Completely. The idea was to make the broadest possible comedy, which affects everyone, from 7 to 77 years old. As Jamel said, we don’t all laugh at the same things. Geographically too, things differ: films from the Pippi gang always work better in the provinces than in Paris. I claim to do popular comedy, I’m proud of it.

JD: I have made dramas, political films, I went to Cannes with Indigènes. But I never went to see it in theaters again. Comedies, I go to see them every time. Because there is nothing more enjoyable than having written a scene, taking a year to write it, and waiting, hidden with the people: will what worked during filming, during editing, reach the spectators?

That’s what you were saying, Philippe, this mathematical side.

PL: Exactly. Our driving force is doubt. You have the gag in your head, you write it, you shoot it, you edit it, and you have the verdict a year and a half later in a theater. On Marsupilami, forty minutes of film were cut. Mostly gags that didn’t work well enough. Because comedy cannot tolerate mediocrity or lack of work.

JD: In France, we don’t dig enough in that place. Apart from rare exceptions – and I’m putting Philippe in there, I’ve seen him work. The meaning of the gag is what is most complicated in our profession. Is it this sense of gag that made you want to film together?

PL: Completely. I really wanted to work with Jamel and I’m a fan of comics. As a kid, I dreamed of becoming a designer. When he agreed to make the film, we were at the beginning of writing. It was important to know early if he was getting on board. And as soon as we knew he was there, it allowed us to draw the story around him.

You, Jamel, have spent your career looking for troops. What did you see at Fifi and her friends?

JD: They intrigued me at first. First, they pissed me off, the Fifi gang. They arrived at Canal+, they were doing funny things, it annoyed me. First reflex. There was a style, a band. And I actually spent my time wanting to be well surrounded. I come from a large family and there is nothing more enjoyable than being part of a group that laughs, that genuinely has fun. Fifi and her gang, they really love each other, they are real friends, you can feel it on the screen, a bit like the Splendid at the time. And you want to be part of their madness.

But in reality, you both don’t work in the same way. How did it go on set?

JD: I’ve always looked for reassuring comedy scores. Do you know what a reassuring comedy is for an actor like me? It’s about being served by situations. And don’t just expect me to clown and fill in, color in my style. A real comic situation is one that can be played by anyone and will be just as funny. Well, Philippe knows how to do that.

PL: And then we belong to two different comedy families. Me, I’m into pure gags, the visual, the mechanics. Jamel is more in the dialogue, the situation, the incarnation. He’s not a stuntman. I can spend an hour fixing a physical gag, a timing. He will look for the right response, the right look.

JD: And that’s why it works well on the Marsu. Because it took both. The visuals, the action, the pure gag, but also the dialogue, the situation, the character. It’s complementary.

When writing, did you take into account the legacy of Alain Chabat’s film? Because it remains a strong memory for many people…

PL: We cannot compare ourselves to Alain Chabat. He’s the only one who knows how to make Alain Chabat. We had to get away from it. Not making a sequel, but another version, with us. Alain’s film is very comic book style, very cartoon, a kind of universe film. Our idea was rather to make a great parody, a tribute to works like ET Or to imagine an extraordinary animal immersed in real life, and to see what that would be like. That was the artistic vision.

JD: And I was the passport between them. They are two completely different countries. And moving away from Alain’s film was very smart on Fifi’s part. We’re showing the film at the moment, we’re asking people who saw the first one, it’s 70 to 80% of the audience. You feel that some people are reassured by the fact that there is obviously Marsupilami.

But we are not in the same proposition. You had to adapt your usual style, Philippe. No bad words, no violence…

PL: Yes, it’s also a constraint that we set ourselves to make a real family film. No bad words, no bloody scenes. Be very careful with rudeness. With two levels of reading, for those who usually like our films, so that they can find their way around. Our fear was that the parents would be bored. Everyone had to be able to have a good time.

Have you imposed writing constraints on yourself?

PL: We have to be even more creative in the situations, in the visuals. We worked a lot on the Marsupilami itself, on what it could do, how it reacts. He’s a character in his own right.

JD: And on this, Philippe is obsessed. He can spend hours adjusting a tail movement, an expression of the Marsu. Because everything goes through that. The animal must be funny, endearing, credible. With all this work, all this demand, in the end, what is the goal?

PL: Entertain people. Propose an hour and a half that is the opposite of the world’s problems. Sun, vibrant colors, lightness and blue skies.

JD: And the Césars or the Palme d’Or, we don’t care. It’s not the priority. It’s the laughter. Time will do the rest. The Splendid, they must have had an honorary Caesar at 72 years old. Pierre Richard at 80 years old. PL: American comics are the same. The Farrelly brothers grab an award with Green Book. Todd Phillips is with Joker that he had recognition. These comedy guys, it’s when they change register that they manage to be recognized.

But don’t you dream of doing something else one day?

PL: Yes, of course. I would love to make a thriller, a pure action film. But now, I’m happy to make people laugh. And Marsupilami was a bit of a childhood dream come true.

JD: I did something else. But every time, I come back to comedy. Because that’s where I feel alive. When you hear a room explode with laughter over something you wrote, something you played, there’s nothing louder. Well… so: how many stars will we have?

By Philippe Lacheau. With Philippe Lacheau, Jamel Debbouze, Elodie Fontan… Duration: 1h39. Currently in cinema.