French-speaking literature loses one of its most illustrious ambassadors. Bernard Pivot, legendary host ofApostrophes and of Culture broth, died Monday at age 89. He interviewed the greatest writers, which earned him several cult television moments. There is no doubt that his broadcasts will have contributed to making reading a little more accessible thanks to their relaxed style, very far from the snobbery that is sometimes associated with Parisian intellectual circles.
“He succeeded in bringing the character of the writer into the cottages, because he brought his taste for life to literature. He was not pretentious, which meant that people watched his literary programs the way they watch a football match,” summarizes Dany Laferrière, whose first appearance at Culture broth dates back to 1999, when Quebec was in the spotlight at the Paris Book Festival.
The academician will meet Bernard Pivot again a few times in the years that follow. Dany Laferrière pays tribute today to a scholar with insatiable curiosity, a critic “who was not limited to saying I like or I don’t like”, a “very well prepared” presenter. And for good reason, Bernard Pivot said he read 10 to 12 hours every day, seven days a week, when he was a TV presenter.
Dany Laferrière also mourns a great ally for Quebec literature in France. From Michel Tremblay to Gaston Miron, many Quebec authors have appeared on Bernard Pivot’s television sets. In 1996, an entire broadcast of Culture broth, will be dedicated in Quebec, bringing together among others Pierre Falardeau and Jacques Godbout, who had not hidden their animosity on the air.
“Bernard Pivot was obsessed with the fight to defend the French language, and Quebec is the greatest standard bearer for this cause. He also appreciated the new words introduced by Quebec literature. He liked that it was not a literature modeled on that of Paris. He understood that the French-speaking world was also Quebec, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Haiti…” underlines the author from the Pearl of the Antilles.
Atypical journey
Nothing initially predestined Bernard Pivot, this provincial passionate about soccer and Beaujolais, to become a literary reference throughout the French-speaking world, to the point of chairing the very prestigious Académie Goncourt from 2013 to 2019. A rather bad student at school, he readily recounted that when he started out as a journalist, he barely knew Balzac, much less Duras. He fell in love with books late in life, when he was hired at Literary Figaro.
From 1975 to 1990, he hosted Apostrophes, a literary program broadcast in France, which will be broadcast from the 1980s on TV5 in Quebec. Every Friday evening, sometimes in front of up to 3.5 million viewers, the great intellectual figures of the time take turns: Solzhenitsyn, Bourdieu, Eco, Gainsbourg, Mitterrand and even the Dalai Lama, to name a few. these passed through Apostrophes.
Suffice to say that for a young author, being invited “to Pivot” represents consecration. “There were always five authors around the table and it’s certain that there was a certain amount of competition between us. It was very stressful, but Bernard Pivot was a great communicator who knew how to put us at ease. If we had made a good impression during our interview, we saw the impact the next day on book sales,” recalls novelist Yves Beauchemin, who participated in Apostrophes twice.
Who says Apostophes said also epic shouting matches between guests. The most (sad) famous: that between Denise Bombardier and the controversial author Gabriel Matzneff, who boasted in his books of having sexual relations with minors. “If there is a real sex education teacher, it’s Gabriel Matzneff, he happily gives lessons.” It is with this casualness, which goes badly in today’s context, that Bernard Pivot presented this sulphurous character on his show.
That day, Denise Bombardier was the only one on set to confront Matzneff, not hesitating to describe him as “pitiful”. This sequence came back into the news in 2020, when the book Le Consentement by Vanessa Springora, alleged victim of Matzneff, was released. “Today, morality comes before literature. Morally, it’s progress,” Bernard Pivot will then recognize.
Bygone era
After the end ofApostrophesBernard Pivot will host until 2001 Culture broth, which was also focused on literature, while opening up to other forms of art. These two flagship French television programs served as a reference for Marie-Louise Arsenault to The more, the more we readthe literary show that she piloted on ICI Première for 11 seasons.
“Pivot has really succeeded in transmitting knowledge to as many people as possible, and this is also what has driven me throughout my career. We suspect that in a very hierarchical France, this desire to be accessible was not always well perceived,” recalls the woman who interviewed Bernard Pivot on a few occasions.
Irony of history: Bernard Pivot disappears the same day that Radio France announces the end of The French-speaking bookstore, hosted by Emmanuel Khérad for 19 years, one of the main radio shows dedicated to books in the French-speaking world. In Quebec, literary content is becoming even rarer on the air, especially since the end The more, the more we read, two years ago. Should we conclude that‘Apostrophes And Culture broth are shows that belong to a bygone era?
“There are people who say that we could no longer do Apostrophes today, but I don’t agree. When I look at what’s working today on YouTube, there are a lot of long interviews, two and a half hour podcasts… I could be wrong, but I really believe that people need depth right now,” says Marie-Louise Arseneault, calling on people in the industry to be more bold.