INTERVIEW
In Romanesque , published in 2018, Lorant Deutsch tackled the French language and its long history of miscegenation. A story he wanted to bring on the stage of the Paris theater in a show on the bill until September 15. A return to his first love, as he explains in Media Culture on Europe 1. "The idea was also to find my first job, because I started as an actor," says Lorànt Deutsch, passionate about history.
"1,500 words from the English, 1,000 Italian words or 1,000 words from Arabic"
"The French language shapes our identity," Lorànt Deutsch explains. The comedian stresses how much language is the common denominator of a country and its history. "Who better than she, rather than anything else like the color of the skin, the religion or the territorial anchorage, shapes our identity?", Thus raises the writer.
During his show, Lorànt Deutsch explains that the French language owes a lot to Clovis, but also "to all those who enriched him, mixed him". He recalls that the French language contains "1,500 words that come from English, 1,000 Italian words or 1,000 words from Arabic".
"If we say that we love France, we answer when we do not like foreigners"
In his previous book, Hexagon , Lorant Deutsch had been accused of delivering a certain vision of French history, ideologically right. Charges he sweeps. "Today, we can not even ask ourselves the question of our origins. (...) If we say that we love France, we are told that we do not like foreigners," said the actor. A "binary stupidity" according to him. "I think that we can love France and foreigners, I am in addition rather than subtraction and fighting," says Lorant Deutsch.