Francis Veber, one of the masters of French comedy in film and theater (the troublemaker, The goat, supper of fools) is back with a new piece, the whirlwindwhich begins this Thursday at the Théâtre de la Madeleine in Paris.
In this piece directed by Philippe Lellouche and Stéphane Metzger, he tells how a depressed journalist will be helped in his recovery by his best friend, a brutal policeman. A piece in reaction to the contemporary era.
“This is the second time in my career that this has happened to me,” Francis Veber explains to BFMTV.
“The first time was in Cabinet. Daniel Auteuil pretended to be homosexual so as not to be fired from a condom factory. But everything else I’ve been able to do, either supper of fools Where The toyIt’s not that rooted in the times.”
The screenwriter, known for his clumsy and endearing antiheroes, wants to make fun of a society he considers “ridiculous”: “We live in a time when we shouldn’t touch tragedies. There are many, but the ridiculousness of this time is obvious, with the ultras to the left or to the right saying extraordinary nonsense. This is the perfect moment to dip the pen in the inkwell. Comedy comes by itself.
“I took advantage of what is happening at the moment, with the Animalist Party proposing to replace the word ‘rat’ with ‘surmulot’ or Sandrine Rousseau who says that it is a sign of virilism to put meat on a barbecue,” adds Francis Veber.
The director thus protests against “this kind of crazy whirlwind” in which “one guy says: ‘The police kill,’ and another replies: ‘The police don’t kill enough.’ It’s a period of contradiction.”
No time for retirement
the whirlwind in fact, it was imagined by Francis Veber for the theater. It is by no means a scenario rejected by the cinema. His history with the tables goes back a long time. He began in the theater in 1968, with the play Get up. But “disgusted by what was happening on stage”, he preferred to dedicate himself to the 7th Art “for 24 years”.
“And that, I can’t regret it.”
At 85 years old, when he no longer has anything to prove, he has returned to the theater in recent years, after the failure of his remake of the troublemaker in 2008. He signed two unpublished pieces, dear treasure Y A pet. Two successes that led him to leave the cinema. He, too, was tired of funding problems and working conditions.
“We only give you six weeks to make a TV movie.”
Of all the great comedy directors of the last forty years – Étienne Chatiliez, Jean-Marie Poiré, Claude Zidi – Francis Veber is the only one who is still as productive.
“My genetics are better!” he laughs.
The weight of age and success hasn’t eroded his sharp humor. There is no time for retirement: “It does not exist in creation! I cannot see myself playing petanque or planting tomatoes.”
A canceled movie with Kev Adams
Two years ago, Francis Veber was about to shoot a new movie for Prime Video, The clown, starring Kev Adams. But the project, which he presents as “a ‘meditation on theater and creation’, did not prosper. He wanted to tell the story of a comedian who finds himself performing a play about the Holocaust.
“I resigned myself to not doing it. Everyone was scared”, regrets the director.
“I go further: I’m not sure that today a theater would accept The cage of the crazy if it was brought by a young author. For the LGBT movement we would tell you that we can’t joke about it, ”he adds again. “We would have been scared next to a masterpiece. It’s one of the few things I’m jealous of.”
“Writing is rewriting”
It is this whirlwind that he mocks in his new work. Tourbillon that, according to him, prevents many comedies from being effective: “The most difficult thing to write is the construction. That is what many comedies lack today. They lack work. Writing is rewriting. A good line can take 3 weeks. It is this martyrdom that all comedies currently lack.”
For him, the martyrdom continues. Francis Veber intends to transpose the whirlwind to the movies. Meanwhile, a remake of one of his classics, The toy, released in October. Jamel Debbouze succeeds Pierre Richard. Francis Veber liked the result: “He has an edge. My film was cold.” [Dans le nouveau]there is a human warmth and it is a tremendous contribution”.
Source: BFM TV
