Jamel Debbouze as you have never seen. For more than an hour, the director Jean-Thomas Ceccaldi allows us to follow him everywhere: in the small rooms where he tests his sketches, in the boxes out of stage, in his car, on a film shoot, in Marrakech laughter and especially when writing his show. Exciting moments that the producer of the documentary, Mélissa Theuriau, absolutely wanted to offer to the public.
She is obviously not just a producer, she is also Jamel's wife. She still had a hard time convincing him, but she absolutely wanted this creative phase to be filmed. "For having accompanied the previous show, and therefore the complex period of creation that precedes, I was at the forefront to realize the investment, self-sacrifice, precision, all this work of watchmaker months and months, but I have also seen the disappointment and the doubt, all that can accompany a period of creation that we do not suspect, especially at home, which is a luminous article, joyous, that makes the fanfaron on the TV sets, that's Jamel's A side, we're less familiar with each other. "
Thanks to this documentary, we discover this side B of Jamel, a universally inaccessible universe: writing with its coauthors. A painful and painful phase sometimes. Contrary to appearances, writing a show is not at all funny. Every word is weighed and debated. The themes of the sketches are chosen with care because Jamel Debbouze is aware of the responsibility and scope he can have.
Jean-Thomas Ceccaldi, rather used to making documentaries of society, took undisguised pleasure to follow Jamel Debbouze during this year: "what a pleasure to film these moments, including hard ones, when, at once, I brought back some I thought, 'What I have, we did not see him anywhere' and that was what interested me, to go and get something from the man, from the citizen. says, 'what luck!' "
Jamel in doubt
Jamel doubts a lot, is afraid of not being able to make laugh and also confides on his course. He juggles his responsibilities as a producer and his own work as an artist and then realizes that he is no longer 20, that the stage is physically hard. He therefore uses a sports coach to prepare himself and he tries in parallel to change diets. You will be able to witness a scene where Jamel is with his coach, in a department of an organic store, analyzing the packets of cakes and launches: "I think that I prefer to die rather than to eat without gluten".
Mélissa Theuriau left carte blanche to director Jean-Thomas Ceccaldi. She only discovered the footage shot at the end of editing, once the first version finished and she immediately loved. "I was upset because I recognized the man with whom I share my life, I just find this movie," she says before continuing. "I'm proud that this film exists because, whether we like it or not like the artist, even if there was disappointment (after seeing this documentary), Jamel will be 45 years old so this It's okay to show who you are, he's having a hard time watching this movie, but I'm happy he exists. "
In the head of Jamel : to see Thursday, October 31, 2019, 23:05, on M6, after the broadcast of the show Now or Jamel .