Deauville (AFP)

Toasts to death and burial mine contest: for his 50th film, director Claude Lelouch has decided to make us laugh at death.

"Love is better than life" was applauded Thursday evening by the public in Deauville.

"It's a film that feels good. We talk a lot about death. And we come out happy. There is something soothing about saying to each other + yes death, we all have a date there one day. Precisely let's live to the maximum. + This makes us love life even more, ”summed up in the night from Thursday to Friday to AFP Sandrine Bonnaire who plays one of the main roles of this comedy.

The theatrical release is scheduled for January 19.

Death, "we will not be able to escape it. So I prefer to go there singing. I want her to find me sympathetic", for his part confided to AFP Claude Lelouch, 83 years old, "It is a film about life. Death is part of life ".

Thursday evening, the audience of the 1,500-person auditorium of the Deauville American Film Festival rose to cheer at length for this comedy, announced as the first part of a trilogy.

"You want the continuation?", Launched Claude Lelouch.

“Yes !!” exclaimed the audience.

Before the screening dedicated to Jean-Paul Belmondo, the filmmaker had warned that there would only be a sequel funded by a success of the first part.

Incorrigible smoker, Gérard (Darmon) has just learned that he has little time left to live.

In front of his relatives, the widowed retiree tries to welcome the news with philosophy and humor.

But his inseparable friends Philippe (Lellouche) and Ary (Abittan), very affected, decide to offer him his latest love story by going to see an escort-girls agency.

Because Gérard has always repeated that "love is better than life".

The director of the agency Sandrine (Bonnaire) proposes to go herself to try to seduce the one that her friends present as an advanced sexagenarian.

After having filmed the beauty of old age in "The most beautiful years of a life" (2019), Claude Lelouch thus tackles death with humor.

- Robert Hossein moving -

We laugh at the insolence of Gérard who improvises a mini funeral mine contest or toasts "to death" to the chagrin of his friends.

We smile at the recurrent irruption of a man with the allure of Jesus of the 21st century (Xavier Inbona) who discreetly works miracles.

Miracles are also for the spectators who see with emotion Robert Hossein incarnating the father of Gérard.

"We were very lucky to tour with Robert Hossein a few days before his death" on December 31, 2020, specifies Claude Lelouch, "he is overwhelming".

Claude Lelouch in Deauville on September 9, 2021 LOIC VENANCE AFP

And when Gérard evokes the meeting of his parents, the prince of popular theater finds his youth alongside Nicole Garcia in an extract from "Les Uns, les autres" (1981).

Even Lino Ventura, who plays Sandrine's father (whom she did not know), emerges from the past via extracts from "L'Aventure, c'est l'Aventure" and "La Bonne année".

Death, "is a promotion of lives to lives (...) through the game of recycling. My children and my grandchildren are smarter than me. They have more lives", confides the filmmaker who received a Palme d'Or at Cannes and two Oscars in Hollywood for "A man and a woman".

Other pills against the fear of death, the few danced and sung shows, which the characters attend, give this comedy musical points.

The Covid rode, but relegated to the background, with sometimes masked characters.

"I wanted to mark the time of the film. The film was shot with the Covid which showed that it is not that important," said the filmmaker.

© 2021 AFP