Manon Bernard 5:55 p.m., August 29, 2021, modified at 5:55 p.m., August 29, 2021

If Jean Gabin had not left so quickly, with whom would he have continued his career?

Sunday, the director Claude Lelouch tells in the program "Dis-moi ce que tu chantes" on Europe 1 that the famous French actor had planned to shoot with him some time before his death.

INTERVIEW

It's a missed date.

"I almost" toured with Jean Gabin, confides Claude Lelouch.

It was not long before the boorish and imposing figure of French cinema found himself behind the camera of the director of

Un homme et une femme

.

In the program

Dis-moi ce que tu chantes,

Sunday on Europe 1, Claude Lelouch recounts his meeting with Jean Gabin at the microphone of Didier Barbelivien.

"I would love to do my last film with you"

In the 1970s, in Paris, Claude Lelouch dined at La Marée, a posh fish restaurant, in the company of Jean Gabin. "Ah, I'm happy. I'm finally going to shoot with a director from the New Wave", announces Jean Gabin to Claude Lelouch. To which the director replies: "you are going to be disappointed, the New Wave, I owe it a lot, it showed me everything that should not be done". At that time, Jean Gabin made an unprecedented response. "I would be delighted to make my last film with you", whisper the actor to the director. 

The proposal is now acted upon: Gabin will make Lelouch's next film.

Jean Gabin was then to play Inspector Lechat in the film

Le Chat et la Souris

, released in 1975 alongside Philippe Léotard (Inspector Chemin) and Michèle Morgan (Madame Richard).

"And as he left a bit quickly, I had him replaced by Serge Reggiani", deplores Claude Lelouch.

"Reggiani was magnificent but he was on the sidelines, on the substitutes' bench," he continued.

Bring together the actors of the famous film "Le quai des brumes"

The director's goal was to bring together a legendary cinema couple, Jean Gabin and Michèle Morgan, whose love at first sight was embodied on the screen in 1938 in Michel Carré's film,

Le quai des brumes

. With a phrase that still resonates in all heads: the "you have beautiful eyes you know" launched by the hoarse voice and recognizable among thousands of the actor. "They were my two idols. Morgan, I wanted to marry him every week and with every movie. And Gabin, he was the boss. He was a man who looked like those we meet in life", confides Claude Lelouch.

For the director, "Gabin is France". More precisely an idea of ​​France, at a certain time. “The stars are not innocent. At one point, we identify with someone. I think there was Raimu's France, Gabin's, Belmondo's. "To be the France of Dujardin today. There is always, at some point, someone who looks like us," says Claude Lelouch. As for Jean Gabin, "he is the star who lasted the longest" and even today, "we only see his films on TV", concludes the director.