Paris (AFP)

On November 21, 1979, Jean-Claude Dusse, Popeye, Gigi and their friends hit the slopes of Val d'Isère for the first time on the big screen. "The Bronzés ski" would become a French cult comedy, whose success still surprises the director Patrice Leconte.

"We never know, on a misunderstanding it can work", "I feel that tonight, I will conclude": these famous replicas have entered the popular culture in France, just like the song of Jean-Claude Dusse on his chairlift: "When will I see you again, wonderful country ...".

Still, there was no reason to expect that this movie would become a classic.

After "Les Bronzés", parody of holiday clubs released in November 1978 - which makes 2.3 million admissions, a good result but not a record for the time - is the producer Yves Rousset-Rouard, uncle Christian Clavier, who persuades the troupe of Splendid and Patrice Leconte to write a second film in the wake.

"The producer felt that + Les Bronzés + would be a good success, and had already told us before the film that we were going to make a number 2 (...) We were not sure, then we went let's convince, "says Patrice Leconte, who had only realized one feature film," Les Vécés was closed from the inside ".

- "Too much to laugh" -

Members of the troupe Splendid, which is rife in the café-theater - Christian Clavier, Michel Blanc, Gerard Jugnot, Thierry Lhermitte, Josiane Balasko and Marie-Anne Chazel - meet at the end of 1978 in Val d'Isère to prepare the sequel .

Eager to start with a dark humor, they initially imagine a film inspired by the drama of Flight 571 of Fuerza Aérea Uruguaya, which crashed in the Andean Cordillera in 1972, and whose survivors had to eat the bodies of the dead.

"Obviously, Yves Rousset-Rouard was very against, because he said + we do not make a comedy with that +," recalls Patrice Leconte.

While the producer is struggling to complete its financing, the members of the Splendid finally leave on a more classic story of holidays in the snow, by taking again their characters of the first opus.

Among them, the clumsy bachelor Jean-Claude Dusse (Michel Blanc), the inveterate dredger Popeye (Thierry Lhermitte), the couple Bernard and Nathalie, become new rich (Gerard Jugnot and Josiane Balasko), the doctor Jerome and his wife Gigi, who holds a crêperie (Christian Clavier and Marie-Anne Chazel), or Christiane the beautician (Dominique Lavanant).

The shooting will be accompanied by some difficulties, related in particular to the weather, but also frank slices of fun. This is the case, for example, during the scene among mountaineers who offer them "fougne", made with leftover cheese, and shallot liquor, recalls Patrice Leconte. "It was very hard to shoot, because we wanted to laugh too much."

- timeless -

At its release, the film will walk without unleashing the crowds, making less entry than the first part (1.6 million). But it will prevail over time and its many reruns on television - 17 so far, said Patrice Leconte - as one of the staple of the French comedy, "propelling with a small turbo," he says, his career and that of the actors.

"These are the reruns that have allowed people to discover the Splendid," says Alexandre Raveleau, author of the book "The Bronzed, the true story." "The cult of Bronzés is first and foremost the fact that it is a troupe of coffee-theater, so another reading of comedy at that time," he analyzes.

"It's also a film that does not get old," adds the author, saying "Splendid movies are probably the most family-friendly". "It's always the same thing to go to the snow, so from generation to generation, we always laugh at the same things."

"When we did these first two + Bronzés +, we were happy to do them," recalls Patrice Leconte. "But we could not think we would talk about it like that 40 years later," he continues. "These films are completely escaping us".

© 2019 AFP