(Paris) World of cinema, family and friends paid a last tribute Thursday in Paris to Gaspard Ulliel, who died last week in a skiing accident at the age of 37, brutally interrupting a career of more than twenty years.
Posted at 8:37
Updated at 8:41 a.m.
The blessing, lasting about an hour, began around 11 a.m. in the Saint-Eustache church, at the entrance of which stood a black and white portrait, cigarette in mouth, of the man who was a Magnetic Saint Laurent on the big screen.
A thousand people – family and guests – were gathered inside the building, and some 1000 others were in its forecourt.
The coffin, black, was greeted with loud applause at the exit, according to the tradition reserved for artists.
Many wreaths of flowers, often white, had been laid, including those of the Césars, the actor Vincent Cassel and the bilingual school Jeannine Manuel in Paris with the inscription “To our dear Gaspouille”.
Among the representatives of the world of cinema: Jérémie Renier, who played Pierre Bergé alongside Gaspard Ulliel in the feature film by Bertrand Bonello -also present-, was among those carrying the coffin at the start of the ceremony.
Also present were Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Huppert, Léa Seydoux, Nathalie Baye, Raphaël Personnaz and Alex Lutz.
A family friend praised the actor’s modesty and great humanity: “Gaspard was a man in a hurry but without neglecting family and friends,” he recalled.
“He was great in”Saint Laurent”. I absolutely wanted to say goodbye to him, ”said Jacqueline, a Parisian retiree who came to pay tribute to the actor.
The accidental death of Gaspard Ulliel, father of a little boy, has sparked a multitude of tributes to a man who was very popular in the middle of the 7and Art.
He was particularly known to the general public for films like A long engagement Sunday (2004) by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Just the end of the world (2016) by Xavier Dolan, which won him the César for best actor in 2017. He played a writer reuniting with his family after twelve years of absence, to whom he came to announce his impending death.
He had previously won the César for Best Male Hope in 2005 thanks to A long engagement Sunday, in which he plays Manech, the fiancé of Mathilde (Audrey Tautou), who disappeared in 1917 in the trenches.
He had also toured the United States, in Hannibal Lecter: The Origins of Evil, which recounts the young years of the cannibalistic serial killer and was his first role in English.
He will be from the Marvel series Moon Knight, airing from March 30 on Disney+.