The film directed by Frédéric Tellier describes the life of the founder of the Emmaus communities, an association for reintegration and solidarity, tireless fighter against poverty, from his birth in 1912 in Lyon until his death in 2007, at the age of 94.
A particularly striking role for Benjamin Lavernhe, one of the most sought-after actors in French cinema, who says he "fell in love" with the character: "He is a revolutionary, a man on the march who leads crowds".
"There is the beret, the cane, the silhouette, but the truth is not necessarily there. (...) It was necessary to manage to desacralize him, to discover his doubts and neuroses, "he continues.
Beyond the reconstruction of the great speeches, including that of the "insurrection of goodness" in February 1954 at the microphone of Radio Luxembourg, the film presents in a didactic way the struggles of the militant for a mobilization of the greatest number in the service of the homeless. A man who "moved mountains," says the actor, who used prostheses to perfect his resemblance to Abbé Pierre.
The doubts and wounds of the former resistance fighter, who became a media star, are touched upon.
The idea was to make "a great adventure film about the history of France and the very intimate portrait of a guy that the French do not really know," adds the actor.
A few years ago, the Abbé Pierre Foundation (which fights against poor housing), "by doing surveys, realized that the generation born in the years 1990-2000 did not know him," says Sophie Doudet, author of a biography on this iconoclastic man (Gallimard, October 2022).
His legacy is however multiple: "first of all a legacy of fight against injustice," says Laurent Desmard, president of the Abbé Pierre Foundation, who worked with him from 1985 until his death and was his private secretary during his last years.
His fight against evictions and for the enforceable right to housing "found concrete actions with us," recalls Jean-Baptiste Eyraud, founder of the association Droit au logement (DAL).
Abbé Pierre in Paris on February 10, 1954 during the operation "Chambre de maids", to temporarily accommodate homeless © families / AFP / Archives
Until November 5, a dozen panels also retrace his career at the Citéco Museum in Paris, from his childhood to his state funeral. We see him for example alongside Zinedine Zidane, who succeeded him in 2004 at the top of the poll of the favorite personalities of the French, in first place he ranked 17 times between 1989 and 2003.
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