"Johnny by Laeticia", a documentary from unpublished videos on M6

• M6 is broadcasting this Wednesday, December 7 at 9:10 p.m. the documentary

  Johnny by Laeticia

  .

• This unpublished film was directed by William Karel thanks to more than 700 hours of personal videos provided by Laeticia Hallyday, one of the three voices constituting the commentary.

• During the recording of the interviews in which she appears and which punctuate the film, the one who spent 23 years with the legend of French rock "was so moved and shaken that we cut the camera because she was crying between each sequence. “, confides William Karel to

  20 Minutes

  .

"I'm making a plan on your beautiful eyes, my love", launches the voice of Laeticia Hallyday while the image slowly approaches her husband, arm crossed and black T-shirt, seated inside the cabin of a boat.

“We never see those films you make,” Johnny replies after a few seconds, staring into the lens.

Five years after his death, the one who shared his life for twenty-three years reveals these private videos.

Seven hundred hours of images, three months of viewing and as much editing at the rate of seven hours a day… The mission entrusted by Laeticia to William Karel will have put the 82-year-old director to the test.

“She was the one who came up with the idea, promising never to come and see the set-up.

When she watched the film, it was finished, we had already added the credits, "said

, the man who produced for M6 the unreleased anniversary film

, broadcast this November 7 on the occasion of the five years of the death of Johnny Hallyday.

"She didn't ask to remove a picture or a word she said..."

The result is based in an hour and forty-two minutes of documentary, from the meeting between Laeticia and Johnny until his death.

“Like many families, I had got into the habit with Johnny of filming moments of life.

First with a camcorder and then with our phones, ”explains in the press release of the chain the one who was the wife of the rocker until his death.

“I never imagined one day sharing this, these are only amateur images.

»

Videos discarded out of modesty

“Neither he nor she can film very well.

Especially him who films rather badly, ”confirms the director.

According to him, the authenticity of the videos captured by the couple in their daily life gives the viewer the impression of "opening a family album".

This album traces the life of the couple, starting from their meeting in Miami in March 1995 until the last days of the rock star.

“The film reveals an image of Johnny that we do not know, we discover his courage, his strength and even his humor at the end, when he knows he is condemned, rejoices William Karel.

When a journalist asks him if he thinks he will have a state funeral, he bursts out laughing because he finds it inappropriate.

»

However, the director immediately dismissed certain videos entrusted by Laeticia.

“In some shots filmed at his home, we saw him trying to eat with oxygen tubes in his nostrils.

We obviously threw away this kind of passages to keep a certain dignity, ”he argues.

The documentary, however, focuses on showing the daily life of Johnny Hallyday, once off the stage.

Very few sequences refer to concerts, apart from those that most marked the last years of the French rock legend.

"His addictions, his demons, his descents into hell..."

This “UFO which does not resemble any other film made on Johnny” does not approach the life of the artist before his meeting with Laeticia.

David Hallyday and Laura Smet are only mentioned there by the singer himself, especially when he considers that he "missed the education of his children", too absent to raise them.

The producer also says that a video showed Johnny playing with David in a swimming pool and that he decided to dismiss it "reluctantly" for image rights reasons.

The documentary does not conceal the darker side of the artist.

“His addictions to drugs, his addictions to alcohol, […] his demons, his descents into hell, sleepless nights”, comments the voice of Laeticia, common thread of the story.

During his interview with the mother of Jade and Joy (18 and 14 years old) for the needs of the film, William Karel remembers a palpable emotion.

“She was so moved and shaken that we cut the camera because she was crying between each sequence,” he reveals.

“She really got involved in the film… When she saw it, she didn't speak for a moment,” he concludes.

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Series

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• Television

• Johnny Hallyday

• M6

• laeticia hallyday

• Documentary