In April 1979, the French public discovered a young actor in the role of Paulo Narboni in the film Le Coup de sirocco , the first of director Alexandre Arcady. This actor is Patrick Bruel. But Paulo Narboni could well have been embodied by someone else, judging by the many adventures that have marked the accession of Patrick Bruel to the cinema.
Every Saturday and Sunday at 6:50 pm, in "Une chanson dans la tête", the French song specialist Fabien Lecoeuvre tells Europe 1 an anecdote around a known title or artist. Today he tells us about Patrick Bruel's debut in the cinema with the film "Le Coup de sirocco".
Born in Algeria, Patrick Bruel arrived in France, in the Parisian suburbs, at three years old. At the end of his high school years, in 1978, he responded to an ad published in the newspaper France Soir . For Le Coup de Sirocco , Alexandre Arcady is looking for a teenager with a "black foot accent". Patrick Bruel is thus found among fifty young people in a rehearsal room, to pass tests.
"Pretty good" but not immediately selected
As he told on Europe 1 in 2014, Alexandre Arcady asked his interior designer to go get him his "Paulo". In the waiting room, only one young man is standing and has just arrived: Patrick Bruel. He is therefore designated and spends the first try of the film for the role of Paulo. The director finds him "quite formidable", but is however not certain of his choice. He therefore decides to continue to run tests, everywhere in France. But the memory of Patrick Bruel will ultimately remain in his mind and Alexandre Arcady will eventually recall it.
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Problem: Patrick Bruel, who hasn't heard from him since his test, plans to go work as a host at a vacation club in Mexico. A few moments before receiving the phone call from Alexandre Arcady's assistant, Patrick Bruel has already left his home with his guitar and his bag. According to Alexandre Arcady, he then realizes that he has forgotten his cassettes of Jacques Brel, a singer who inspires him. So he returns home. The phone is ringing.
"The coup du sombrero"
Patrick Bruel replied in the negative to the assistant's proposal. Alexandre Arcady then seizes the telephone and manages to bring the young man to his office, but remembers that it was "impossible to convince him". To attract him, the director goes so far as to warn him that in the event of an overly insistent refusal, he will not hesitate to take someone else.
Patrick Bruel does not seem convinced. Alexandre Arcady then tries everything for everything. "Next January, we are going to do the Michel Drucker show on Sunday afternoon. We will play the extracts with the actor who will play the role. You will watch them on TV, you will be at home with your sombrero and you will be very happy "he said to Patrick Bruel. "The blow of the sombrero murdered him," he joked on Europe 1. Finally, Patrick Bruel accepts.
In Le Coup de sirocco , the singer-actor plays alongside Roger Hanin and Marthe Villalonga. The film, with such a small budget that Patrick Bruel had to put up the posters, brought together almost a million and a half spectators in the cinemas. Some time later, in 1984, Patrick Bruel wrote with Gérard Presgurvic his first success, Marre de cette nana-là , sold 200,000 copies.