Death of Michel Blanc, sad clown of French cinema

(Paris) Unbearable Jean-Claude Dusse in The Bronzeda major actor in comedic cinema in the 80s before moving towards dramatic roles and a career as a director, Michel Blanc died at the age of 72 on the night of Thursday to Friday.

Announced by Paris Matchhis death was confirmed to AFP by the press officer for his main films, Laurent Renard.

The actor suffered a heart attack in the evening and was transported in serious condition to a Parisian hospital, his entourage told AFP.

“Fuck, Michel… What did you do to us…”, reacted on Instagram Gérard Jugnot, his accomplice from the Splendid comedy troupe, summarizing the astonishment and emotion of the public at the announcement of this death .

“Michel my friend, my brother, my partner,” wrote Josiane Balasko on the same social network, also a member of the troupe that brought them to fame.

“This morning, the pain is immense, commensurate with his talent […]. Cinema, the world of culture and all French people will not forget it,” said the Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, on the social network X.

Like that of Jean-Claude Dusse, in The Bronzed by Patrice Leconte (1978), or by Denis in Walk in the shade (1984), which he had directed, it was the comic characters of exasperating losers that earned him his immense popularity with the public.

Archetype

In these films, Michel Blanc creates a comic archetype, that of the skinny, mustachioed bald man who is as exasperating as he is endearing, which will then stick to him.

“At the time, we wrote characters who were quite close to us. Jean-Claude Dusse, it was clearly for me, not for Thierry Lhermitte (the seducer in The BronzedEditor’s note). I quickly became afraid that I would be associated with it all my life,” he told Paris Match in spring.

He then took other paths, with dramatic roles like that of the transvestite Antoine in Evening wear (1986) by Bertrand Blier, or the disturbing Mr Hire (1989) by Patrice Leconte, based on a book by Georges Simenon.

With his death, “we will celebrate the actor of Tanned and other public successes of the one with the ailing physique of the Frenchman to whom we do not do it”, but “let’s hope that we will not forget a film in which he is an actor and director”, and “this Mr Hire which is a masterpiece,” reacted the former president of the Cannes Film Festival, Gilles Jacob, on X.

A hard worker, a perfectionist, Michel Blanc knew how to use his complexes and his writing talent to explore disenchantment and shape the characters in his films, particularly those he had directed as Severe Fatigue (1994) and Kiss whoever you want (2002).

In 2006, Patrice Leconte once again brought together the troop of Tanned for a third part, which had been a critical failure.

Despite this, Michel Blanc still wanted to work again with his former accomplices from Splendid, as he said in the spring at Paris Match : “Doing things together, yes, but not The tanned ones. We no longer know how to do this humor. It was almost fifty years ago, the world has evolved.”