In the spotlight: Belmondo, the magnificent
Audio 04:28
Jean-Paul Belmondo during a photo shoot, December 5, 2016 © Joel Saget / AFP Archives
By: Frédéric Couteau Follow
8 mins
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"
Le Magnifique
" by Philippe de Broca in 1973: it was one of his greatest films. And the nickname stuck with him. "
The Magnificent
" sigh on the front page
L'Humanité
,
Le Parisien
,
Le Bien Public
,
Le Progrès
,
Le Dauphiné
,
L'Union
,
La Provence
,
Le Télégramme
,
La Dépêche
,
La Nouvelle République
and
L'Est Républicain
.
Another nickname: Bébel… “
Bébel in heaven
”, exclaims
La Marseillaise
, “
Eternal Bébel
”, launch
L'Ardennais
and
Midi Libre
, “
Adieu Bébel
”, exclaims
Le Républicain Lorrain
, “
La Vie Bébel
”, point
Liberation
.
"
It is true that he was funny, Bébel,
notes
Libé
, the
one who dared everything, the gritty, even coarse words, with his friend Jean-Pierre Marielle.
It is true that he did it well, the "guignolo", with his smile broken like his nose, the "toc, toc, badaboum", when Alain Delon, the other version of the French lover, played the tragic.
He did it well, the mutt who is not afraid of anything, and especially not to display his lack of culture.
Or the testosterone stuntman.
Or the cop in jeans molds cock
(…).
So why
?
», Asks
Release
.
“
Why has Jean-Paul Belmondo become this French incarnation of the star
?
The answer does not lie only in this trademark that is its popular register.
Not enough.
(…) The answer lies in this trait which links this double career of girls and films of authors
: this permanent recklessness.
So natural.
And so inaccessible.
"
Priest, cop, adventurer, seducer or mobster ...
“
Inaction was not his type,
recalls
Le Figaro
.
It had to move, that it stirred, that it got carried away. Its palette is wide. Going from one director to another, he was in turn priest, cop, adventurer, seducer or mobster.
(…) Fifty years of career, nearly 80 films. Everyone has their favorite. Almost all of them were successful. The public adored him, plebiscited him. Rarely has an actor acted so sincerely. Bébel was not cheating. He did what he loved and loved what he did.
"
“
Belmondo was a comedian, an actor, a genius mountebank who never shied away from a hoot,
underline
Les Latest Nouvelles d'Alsace
.
With his prolific banter, his crooked nose and this unimaginable presence, he is one of the few (maybe even the only one
?) In France to have succeeded in reconciling auteur cinema and popular films.
"
Simple and accessible
“It's
impossible not to like Jean-Paul Belmondo,
” says
L'Union
. “
Where some star actors play the untouchable stars, he has always been simple, accessible. He rubbed shoulders with the older ones but we had the impression that he could be this friend with whom we remade the world until the end of the night around a good meal, a cigar and a good bottle.
"
So, sighs
Sud-Ouest
, "
we expected of course the departure of a man covered with tributes during his lifetime and who already has his place with Gabin, de Funès and other sacred monsters, in the pantheon of cinema. hexagonal.
But with him, the memory of a good-natured France and more united than today fades a little further.
This is why, in spite of an impressive filmography which ensures us forever not to lose sight of him, the disappearance of Bébel the magnificent carries us sorrow
”.
"A certain French relaxation"
And tributes to Belmondo are not limited to France ... The disappearance of the New Wave icon is making headlines around the world, points out
Le Parisien
.
“'
A certain French relaxed'
, headlines
The Hollywood Reporter
, one of the benchmark publications in the Hollywood industry. (…) The Spanish daily
El País
celebrates "
the icon of modernity who brought with him the New Wave, filmed with great filmmakers like Godard, Truffaut and Chabrol
", without forgetting "
this naughty image
" which stuck to him. the skin and which made its success. (…) In Great Britain, continues
Le Parisien
,
The Guardian
headlines “
this actor with the face of a boxer
” who knew how to “
make crime sexy
”. (…) "
No one gave crime so much sex appeal
", adds the German daily
Bild
, without forgetting to recall that Belmondo was also a"
legend of the theater
". (...) Finally,
La Libre Belgique
salutes the itinerary of a comedian"
black sheep
"and"
become the actor the most innovative of his generation
. "The daily in Brussels remembers, not without malice, that the deceased actor embraced"
the most beautiful actresses, from Catherine Deneuve to Sophia Loren via Claudia Cardinale, Françoise Dorléac, or even Ursula Andress who was his companion from 66 to 72
"."
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