Michel Blanc – Grosse Fatigue: “Bertrand Blier taught me to write”

In this 1994 comedy, Michel Blanc plays Michel Blanc, whose doppelganger multiplies the slip-ups which end up falling on him.

France.TV continues his tribute has Michel Blancthis evening, by offering his second production on France 2, Very tired. A very original comedy, which First warmly advise you.

Ten years later Walk in the shadeMichel Blanc went back behind the camera to write and direct this film which won an award at Cannes: he was rewarded in 1994 for his screenplay and his special effects created by Pitof (Vidocq). At the time, the actor, screenwriter and director spoke in First with Alain and Jean-Yves Kruger, accompanied by his main actress, Carole Bouquetabout this project inspired by a mishap that happened to Gérard Jugnot.

A few years earlier, the actor from Splendid had been the victim of identity theft, and the case had ended up in court. Bertrand Blier and Michel Blanc took this true story and transformed it around another member of the troupe (Blanc, therefore), accused of having sexually abused several actresses, of having participated in robberies, and of having sowed discord at the Cannes Film Festival. He knows he is innocent, but how can he prove it? He then discovers that he has a double, who suffered so much from looking like Michel Blanc that he decided… to take advantage of it.

Michel Blanc’s film commentary: Les Tanzés, Marche à L’ombre, Evening Wear, Grosse Fatigue…

In 2019, the real Michel Blanc looked back on the notable films of his film in Firstand he explained about this ambitious project (50 million francs at the time), which brought together all his actor friends, from Josiane Balasko to Christian Clavier via Gérard Jugnot:

“I wanted to talk about the strange relationship between the public and celebrities. But it took me a while to find how. I tried without success with Josiane Balasko and Jacques Audiard. Then it was suggested to me to work with Bertrand Blier who taught me to write because until then, I restricted my imagination by my obsession with perfectly structuring each scene. Whereas Bertrand follows the opposite logic: he imagines a first scene without having the sequel in mind. This is also why I quickly understood that our duo would lead to nothing: what I proposed to him never fit with his creative freedom so Bertrand wrote a first version alone. And it was so Blier that. I didn’t see the point in directing it, but he had the idea of ​​having actors play their own roles. And when I learned that Depardieu wanted to take over the project. I reclaimed it, obviously inspired by Bertrand’s discoveries.”

30 years ago, he recounted in even greater detail how he came up with the idea for this film, laughing at the fact that in real life he had never “never had any desire to rape Balasko!” (“It’s not pejorative for her, it just happens that our relationship has taken a different turn”). He also explained straight away that Severe Fatigue was not the most daring project of his career: “Evening wearit’s really provocative. But in another register.” Recognizing Blier’s influence on its production, he still considered that he had finally made a comedy capable of having its own tone, even if it was presented to the public as having been born “based on an idea from Bertrand Blier.”

His selection at the Cannes Film Festival amused him greatly (“Climbing the steps for this film is like I’m playing a joke on them!”), and if the appearance “meta” to play with this huge cinema event in his film was fully assumed, he swore not to have stolen the idea from Les Nuls, which came out at the same time The City of Fearand its famous sequence of climbing the stairs (“So here comes the sub-prefect again…”):

“I haven’t had time to see it yet, but I didn’t want to make a pastiche. I wanted to play with reality in a murkier way. (…) What interested me was It was to find a new style of comedy, with a more ambiguous tone. In any case, I no longer wanted to do first-rate realistic comedies. Walk in the shade or dinner theater comedies. (…) I wanted to make a joke, that is to say go straight on everything and everyone. I treat everyone the same: myself and the cops. It seems to me that this is how we ‘shaken’.

(…)

Paradoxically, I believe that Very tired is the film that most resembles me. In any case, it’s a step towards something that really suits me. So I’m no longer afraid of getting it in the face.”

Assuming its end “optimistic” and his attachment to European cinema, he recognized his desire not to remain confined to one register, to one type of role. At the same time, his accomplices Gérard Jugnot and Christian Clavier seemed to have found their style of comedy: touching for the first, who was then coming out Peacekeepervery effective on a humorous level for the second, which had just been a hit thanks to the Visitors.

“(I am) clucky to have the opportunity to navigate a little as I see fit, commented Michel Blanc. I know I would get bored within a given style, even if it is of greater coherence and effectiveness when trying to ‘build’ a career (which I don’t believe in at all, by the way). I don’t do this job to get bored. I don’t do this job to, at all costs, be popular, but I’m delighted when it goes well. So, if I’m not consistent, too bad! I am perhaps less coherent than Clavier, even as a human being… It’s true that I have a less orderly life than Christian.”

Very tiredan arthouse film?

“When I wrote it, it was a comedy, replied Michel Blanc. I didn’t think for a second about doing anything other than a provocative prank. And the first person to tell me it was a ‘arthouse film’it’s Carole. I am delighted. It’s a compliment that touches me.”

Carole Bouquet, invited to comment on her filmography in the following pages, confirmed her remarks:

“Very tiredI call it a devilish comedy. I haven’t seen a film like this until now. It’s a film that totally resembles Michel. He’s truly an author.”

Very tired enjoyed great success 30 years ago, without being as important as the 6.1 million entries recorded by Walk in the shadein 1984. The film was seen by 2 million spectators in France upon its release, which places it between the scores of Tanned and of Santa Claus is trash within his filmography as an actor. Quite far behind the 10 million Tanned 3 or 4 million Mad Raid, The Fugitives, The New Adventures of Aladdin Or Grandpa resistsbut still enough to establish Michel Blanc as a screenwriter and director who counts in France. He subsequently made three other films: Bad passin 1999, Kiss whoever you wantin 2002, and See how we dancein 2018.

What will be Michel Blanc’s last film?