Sunday May 28, 2023, France 2 broadcast The Rassam-Berri Saga, cinema in the veins. Michel Denisot and Florent Maillet tell the story of one of the great dynasties of the 7th French and international art through this documentary.
“It’s the story of a clan. The most romantic of French cinema. The Rassam-Berri. Two intertwined families who have made half a century of cinema. La Grande Bouffe, We will not grow old together, Tchao Pantin, Apocalypse Now, Welcome to the Ch’tis, The Artist. At the center of this family, an unknown to the general public: Paul Rassam. His brother and his brother-in-law are more famous: Jean-Pierre Rassam and Claude Berri. a history studded with drama: divorces, tragic suicides and unexplained deaths. And today, a new generation has taken over. Thomas Langmann – son of Claude Berri – and Dimitri Rassam, son of Carole Bouquet and Jean-Pierre Rassam” .
Carole Bouquet was rightly one of the interviewees. The actress lived for a few years with Jean Pierre Rassam. The latter died prematurely in January 1985 at the age of 43 due to medication taken to get off heroin. “I never thought he was going to die from the excesses he had done […] I never saw that Jean-Pierre was in danger”, said. With Claude Berri’s brother-in-law, she had Dimitri, who was three years old at the time of his father’s death. Too hard for the mother-in-law of Charlotte Casiraghi to announce the terrible news to her child. “I made a terrible mistake, but because I couldn’t tell. I didn’t tell Dimitri, I didn’t tell his son […] I couldn’t tell him ‘Your father is dead’, I couldn’t say it”.
During this painful ordeal, she was able to count on the presence of Paul Rassam, who occupied this role of “surrogate father” for Dimitri. “Paul in many ways has been and is someone who fills that place. He has so much affection for his brother that he never wanted to fill him fully. ‘he has for me’.
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