In the program "Historically yours", Stéphane Bern tells the story on Thursday of the true story of Jean de La Fontaine, the most famous French fabulist.
A story to which Fabrice Luchini reacts, guest of the show, but above all talkative actor and great lover of the author of the story of the raven and the fox.
INTERVIEW
How did Jean de la Fontaine become Jean de La Fontaine?
Stéphane Bern tells the story of the life of the famous fabulist in the program
Historically yours
Thursday.
Explanations to which the actor Fabrice Luchini does not fail to react, guest of the day and enlightened lover of the work of the most taught fables in the schools of France.
If we retain from La Fontaine his fables and their famous morals, the latter are "rather secondary" in the work of the poet, according to the actor.
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"Contrary to what one believes, the moralism of La Fontaine is inspired by Hésiode, Pipelet, oriental books, various facts", explains Fabrice Luchini, according to whom Jean de La Fontaine did not hesitate to seek the inspiration elsewhere.
"There were times when Madame de Sévigné would tell him a news item, and he would lay a fable on the same subject a month or two later."
"A genius adapter"
And this is where, according to him, lies the genius of the famous fabulist.
"His great uniqueness in the history of the French language, perhaps with Molière, is that he is a genius adapter," says Fabrice Luchini.
"If you take Aesop's fables, it's heavy, it weighs. And then, La Fontaine arrives in these fables, adapts them, and it becomes the embodiment of fluidity."
And it is this ease of access that still makes La Fontaine's fables so popular today.
However, Fabrice Luchini is not sure that the poet was doing all this in a conscious way.
"We do not even know if he knew what he was doing! It's very mysterious ...", tells, not without emphasis, this lover of beautiful letters.