Jean Rochefort lived so badly the filming of this comedy that he almost took the place of director Patrice Leconte to finish her in his place.
Patrice Leconte is the director of the films Les Bronzés, but also comedies with the late Michel Blanc solo, more intimate films like the girl on the bridge or tandem, the psychological thriller Monsieur Hire as well as the ridiculous film, named to the Oscar for best foreign film in 1997.
“I had the trouble”
For the program Beautiful gesturethe filmmaker 12 times appointed to the César returned to the difficult filming of his first feature film in 1975, the comedy Les Vécés were closed from the interior, adapted from comics of the designer and author Marcel Gotlib:
Gaumont ROCHEFORT-DALBAN-COLUCHE
“I had the trouble, the first day, the second day (…), every day”entrusts Leconte to Pierre Lescure. “I had a dream for a very long time: making films. (…) I am doing this first feature film with Jean Rochefort and Coluche produced by Gaumont. Jean Rochefort – we can talk about it, he is no longer there – was found Alain Poiré at La Gaumont and said to him: 'Leconte is really incapable, he does not know what cinema is, I will make the film in his place'.”
“The production director therefore came to find me to say to me: 'From tomorrow, it is Jean Rochefort who runs the film. But you can stay!' Fortunately, friends to me who were part of the team came to see me, I was elsewhere.
Leconte-Rochefort, reconciliation?
A2 movies Rochefort and Jugnot in “Tandem”
Despite these tensions, which remained with knives drawn during the shooting, and the flop of the film, Leconte dares to send to Rochefort, 11 years later, the script of a film entitled Tandem:
“He read it very quickly, and before reading it, a phone call to me: 'What am I learning, Patrice? Are you crazy, do you want to redo a film with me?' The next day, he called me: 'Pierre, it's Jean.
And indeed, Leconte will turn Jean Rochefort to run after afterwards, with the Haifter husband (1990), Tango (1993), ridiculous and the great dukes (1996) and finally the train man (2002).
