INTERVIEW
In his new book Life is beautiful, I kill myself to tell you it appeared on January 23 (editions of L'Archipel), Patrick Chesnais, actor and director, confides on his childhood, his family, his loves or even on his actor tribulations. At Anne Roumanoff's microphone, Patrick Chesnais returned on Thursday to the course of his brother, a former delinquent who then became director of the firm IBM.
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"I was quite admiring because he was a bit of a boss in the provinces, in Rouen. He should not be bothered," said Patrick Chesnais of his brother who died last year. He particularly remembers those moments when he "drove him around on his Vespa during the James Dean era". "I was the king of the party," said the actor.
A "Jean Valjean" of modern times
With nine years apart, it was difficult at the time for young Patrick Chesnais to imagine his brother behind bars for robbery. "I knew it was not clear but I was not really aware of it. Once I went to see him in prison with my mother, I understood that he had done bullshit", explains- there. Patrick Chesnais says that his minor brother was sentenced to three years in prison but that in reality, he served most of his sentence in "a sort of reformatory".
According to him, his brother gradually tidied up. "He wanted to get out of love first because he met a woman," says Patrick Chesnais. "He wanted to work and he was asked for his criminal record. He pretended to have forgotten it, replying that he would report it the next day but he was never asked. After the rehabilitation trial, after five years, his locker was cleared for good behavior. "
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The rest of his life was then much happier. "He started doing internships at IBM and it turns out that he was strong enough and brilliant enough to finish as director," says Patrick Chesnais, who compares his brother to a "Jean Valjean" of modern times.