A mountain of tenderness named Bernard Menez – Pléneuf-Val-André
So you are back in Brittany for an evening?
” Eh yes ! It’s a place that I know less than the region of Saint-Pol-de-Léon where I spent my holidays as a child at my grandmother’s. I am pleased. Especially since it’s for a very good reason. Today, what is essential for me is to play in the theater (1)”.
This time, you share the stage with four actors, in a vaudeville that no longer holds any secrets for you.
“The piece, ‘Duets on the sofa’, is probably the one I’ve played the most and therefore the one I know best. It is also for this reason that I asked to be the director on this tour. Basically, the role I play in the theater was created by Darry Cowl. The first time, I had to learn the text very quickly. In 1979, the play was adapted for the cinema and it was Jean Lefebvre who stole the role from me. So I had to play another character in the film. At the time of filming, on the same day, I interpret a role for the film in the afternoon and another in the theater in the evening! »
If Coluche hadn’t said yes, I would have had the role in the film “L’Aile ou la thigh”.
How is the text of the play, written just 50 years ago, still relevant?
“So that is the essential quality of its author, Marc Camoletti! The play is made up of comic situations with realistic and timeless characters who have reactions that are both unexpected and excessive, but so human. They are ultimately very annexed to today’s existence. And then, it’s not mechanics, it’s comedy.
Do you think the boulevard theater still has a bright future ahead of it?
“Yes, I believe so. After the golden age of quality boulevard theatre, which I would place in the 1980s, there was the creation of regional and national stages which prided themselves on offering more intellectual and, ultimately, more hermetic performances. Except that this ostracism which imposes a programming without boulevard does not allow the spectators to have the possibility of choosing. Or, I find that everywhere we’ve played lately, the halls were full and the reviews from the public were rave reviews”.
Among your many roles in the cinema, there is this appearance in “L’Avare”, with Louis de Funès, released in 1980. What memory do you keep of this great actor?
“The first time I met him I was very young. I had founded the Compagnie Sganarelle which intervened in colleges and high schools around classical authors. I had heard of his project to adapt L’Avare, by Molière, to the big screen. One evening, I went to see Louis de Funès in his dressing room, and I dared to ask him if I could play the role of La Flèche in his film. He replied “yes” immediately. He had obviously seen me at the theater before. Later, I learned from the director Claude Zidi that for the film “The wing or the thigh”if Coluche had not said yes, I would have had the role”.
For three weeks, in 1984, I topped the charts in France ahead of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”.
In addition to your activity as an actor and comedian, the general public also knows you for the hit “Pretty doll”.
“This song is a matter of the heart. I had been offered a lot of songs that I had almost all refused. One day, a songwriter calls me and hums me the tune. I immediately liked the West Indian rhythm and the two-way lyrics. I recorded “Jolie doll” with the producer-arranger Bernard Estardy in 1984. It was Guy Lux who immediately believed in this song. Quickly, she became a gold record. For three weeks, I topped the charts in France ahead of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”. And yet, she was banned from airing at NRJ, and still is today on Nostalgie, for reasons that I don’t know.
Do you still sing it sometimes?
“Yes, it happens to me. Recently, on the occasion of the Chinese New Year, I was asked to sing it at the Théâtre du Gymnase in Paris. It’s a song that has brought me a lot throughout my career. You know, to succeed in this environment, you need: luck, stubbornness and talent. In that order, huh”.
In 2002, I finished 4th in the legislative elections in Paris behind Édouard Balladur, Anne Hidalgo and the FN candidate.
In 2002, you ran for the legislative elections in Paris, then again in 2007. Tell us about your experience.
“I have lived in the 15th arrondissement of Paris since the 1970s. I had always told myself that I would try to be useful to those who needed it. Even today, I feel closer to the Yellow Vests than to the Cac 40. In 2002, I ran independently and financed the entire campaign out of my own pocket. I was supported by a group of young people with a discourse outside the existing political parties. In the end, out of 19 lists, I finished 4th behind Édouard Balladur, the UMP candidate, Anne Hidalgo, head of the PS list, and the FN candidate. Five years later, I represented myself without much success. And then, I said to myself that I was surely more useful for people on the boards and in the cinema”.
How do you currently view politics?
“I always like to watch the televised debates, even if today, it goes a little in circles. To tell the truth, I am worried about the future of my children and my grandchildren. I have the impression that history, especially that of the 1930s and 1940s, can repeat itself. We must be wary of those who say they will decide when they will not. Despite everything, I continue to vote. Not enthusiastic, rather by default”.
Theater play “Duos on sofa”, Saturday February 12, at 9 p.m., at the Pléneuf-Val-André casino. Prices: from 28 to 33 €. Phone. 02 96 72 85 06. Website: casino-valandre.partouche.com
(1) In August 2020, Bernard Menez had been plunged into an artificial coma for several days following a medical intervention which had not gone as planned.