France Castel no longer wants to talk about her past. Scotch nights, tracks of coke wide as CN rails, the heartbreaking loves, the desires to die, the demons of her childhood, she wants to put it all away.
She said it to France Beaudoin and repeated it to Monique Giroux in two superb programs devoted to her this weekend on Ici Première and Ici Musique and which I order you to listen to live or delayed.
“I’ve talked enough about myself,” she told her friend France Beaudoin. I circled around. I find myself immodest, I want to stop this. I find that made there, it is indecent. »
At a time when the notion of private life no longer means anything, when intimacy bows before vulgarity, what does France Castel do? She gently closes the door.
“It’s not the end of the profession, but it’s the end of a lot of business in the profession, she adds. I’m still relevant. I am still able to speak. But I’m going to be 80. This year, I lost five or six people around me…”
Andrée Lachapelle liked to say of France Castel that she had forgotten her age. It is true that this eternal blonde symbolizes resilience and courage. For the public, she is the “survivor” par excellence. But Wonder Woman wants to hang her costume in a closet.
“Actually, I try to forget my age. But here, I want to let myself grow old. It feels like a job and I don’t fancy another job. »
France Castel arranged to meet France Beaudoin at the Casino de Montréal for the recording of this program. Hence the title All for all. This choice may annoy some people. This is why the former co-hosts of two girls in the morning quickly settle the question of the taboo that surrounds the game.
France Castel does not hide it, she has a passion for poker which forces her to put her brain in motion. “What I love about this game is that it’s not just luck. Even if you have a very bad hand, depending on who you play with, you can win. It applies to poker and it applies to life too. »
This (too short) program, directed by Alexandre Sheldon, gives France Beaudoin the opportunity to speak frankly to us about her friend. “She gave us permissions, the right to rebel, to have fun, to laugh out loud, to love differently, to do as much as possible, to forgive ourselves and get on with it. »
You will also hear Judi Richards who knew the chorister period of France Castel, as well as the director André Forcier who gave her “a break” when she was desperately trying to come back to the surface and her entourage said of her that she was not “trustable”.
Forcier made him play in A made up storyin 1990, then in The Wyoming Windin 1994. The director, reputed to have a bad temper, kindly gave France Castel the nickname “sinner”.
On Sunday afternoon, Monique Giroux devotes her three hours of weekly airtime on Ici Musique to a program called France Castel: beautiful and rebellious. The interviewing talents of Monique Giroux met an available, frank, funny and moving France Castel.
I dare you to have a dry eye when the singer performs Let’s go the sea is beautiful and that she will say why she wanted to do this song. By listening to it, we realize that childhood wounds sometimes heal very badly…
This program, without doubt one of the finest I have heard from Monique Giroux, is rich in archival documents.
And it offers us the presence of several artists: Catherine Major, who signs the musical direction, Louise Forestier, Monique Fauteux (thank you, Monique Giroux, for giving us this voice so beautiful and so rare), Virginie Cummins and Véronique Claveau.
And then, there is the visit (sorry to reveal the punch) of Pierre Huet and Luc de Larochellière who offered some songs to France Castel on the disc which she launched last September.
There are several highlights in this show produced by Marie-Pierre Bouchard. France Castel’s interpretation of Farewell to a sex symbol anchors this song often attributed to performers who are too young. We are also entitled to With the left hand, My blues could pass in’ door And Prince Arthur.
But I admit that the interpretation of lost beauty, precious stone of Luc de Larochellière, threw me to the ground. When we hear “I’ll never have enough tears to wash my eyes well” from the mouth of France Castel and we learn to whom she dedicates it, we discover one of the explanations for this step back.
“Currently, she represents my daughter,” she said. It is this lost beauty that I sing with this song. »
“Your daughter lives abroad?” », Then asks Monique Giroux.
“My daughter lives abroad and my daughter is not well…”, France Castel is content to say.
The icing on the cake of this great celebration is an “augmented” audio book made from the biography of France Castel, Here and now, exclusively on OHdio. Alongside the author Jean-Yves Girard, the actress offers a high-level performance.
Skilfully produced by André Martineau, this document that will accompany your long journeys on the road is as funny as it is moving.
France Castel: everything for everythingSaturday, June 3, 3 p.m., Ici Première (and on OHdio)France Castel: beautiful and rebelliousSunday, June 4, 4 p.m., Ici Musique (and on OHdio)
Audio book Here and nowon OHdio, starting June 5