The world of cinema and sport were touched when they learned of the disappearance of Jean-Paul Belmondo and Bernard Tapie. But undoubtedly not as much as Claude Lelouch… The director, very close to the two men, lived a year 2021 more than complicated by seeing two of his friends leave in the space of a few months. Despite his pain, he unvarnished his last visit to the former “Boss” of the Olympique de Marseille in the columns of Paris Match. A visit taking place “four days before his death”.
A very hard moment because, for the first time, he saw his friend bedridden: “it was the first time that I saw him bedridden”. Although the situation did not really lend itself to it, the two still found the time to laugh at this moment and to keep fond memories of it: “We looked at each other with those smiles that say more than a novel. . And he said to me: “You saw, I found my voice. Prepare your camera! »», Remembers Claude Lelouch who assured thereafter that Bernard Tapie «still believed» in spite of the fact that he lived his last hours.
Still during the same interview, the famous director who has often been close to death during the last twelve months, did not hide his apprehension at the idea of losing his life too… If some do not fear it, Claude Lelouch, him , is afraid of it and does not hide it. “They were nervous too”, he confessed to our colleagues before admitting: “Like me, death gives me the jitters”. But if he is so afraid to leave this world and join his missing friends, it is also because he had a very bad “experience” when he was 19 years old, as Gala points out. Bebel and Nanard’s friend losing his very young father: “He died of a heart attack in my arms”. An event which obviously traumatized the filmmaker.
To see also: