Jean Rochefort died five years ago. The actor, taken away at the age of 87, inspired the new generations of actors who arrived behind him. The medium of comedy is not the only one in which the star has left a mark. She is just as impregnated and indelible in the hearts of her children, including her youngest Clémence, 30 years old. The young woman, the spitting image of her dad, created a show in his memory: Evenings with Jean Rochefortmeeting of exchanges during which she invites several personalities to evoke the memory of her father.
Clémence and Jean Rochefort have always had a special relationship, right to the end. Her departure when she was only 24 years old was a shock, necessarily, but for all that, Clémence was not flabbergasted when she heard the news: “He himself was preparing us for it, since I was a teenager, he used to tell me: ‘I’m going to die soon.’ He was very lucid about it” she tells the Parisian.
In 2020, Clémence Rochefort publishes Father, a book in which she shares the most important memories she had with her father. A bad for a good. “It was really liberating to write, it helped me to mourn, we cry a lot while writing, but then things settle down“, she continues. Transcribing all these writings on stage was one more step towards acceptance and appeasement: “It’s a way of paying homage to him, of making his wishes come true.“
Thinking back to the death of her father and the short life she had with him, Clémence Rochefort has no bitterness: “I find it wonderful to have had a short and intense relationship with my father, there are no regrets or frustrations. Everything was said. We said everything.“The show is a fair return of things according to her, and especially what Jean Rochefort would have wanted:”I still had that to do, it’s a bit of a promise kept. He wanted to do it so badly but his body was giving out and he was very sad that he had never done it. I think he would be very happy.” If that was what he wanted, Clémence could not have given him a better gift.