“I already saw myself at the top of the bill”, the lyrics of the song ring true to describe Aznavour’s acting career. In the credits of more than fifty films from 1936 to 2006, from Duvivier to Mocky, from Chabrol to Truffaut, through the work of Philippe Rège, “Aznavour, a destiny of cinema”, let’s discover the actor who hid behind the immense singer.
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Reading time: 7 min
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For the centenary of his birth in October 2024, in front of Mehdi Idir’s camera and of Grand Corps Malade, Tahar Rahim will be Charles Aznavour. A biopic for the moment with secret content, but we can imagine that the story of the singer’s life will swerve towards his roles in the cinema.
Because the 7th Art, for Aznavour, was not a hobby. The greatest directors of the second half of the 20th century century turned the singer around. Anyone who saw him on stage understands well that, singer or actor, Charles Aznavour had within him this sense of play made of fragility, but also of magnetism. Collection of stories from this film credits that was his life as an actor in Aznavour, a cinematic destiny by Philippe Rège published by Hugo Doc.
Philippe Rège’s work is full of anecdotes about the career of Charles Aznavourian. He embarks in eighty years of cinema. Nourished by a cinephile at the Cinéac du faubourg Montmartre, child from an Armenian family, Charles took classes at the School for Children of the Performing Arts. Unlike many parents trying at all costs to keep their offspring away from these acrobat professions, his baritone father and his actress mother encourage their son and daughter on the path of performing. Charles is a child of the ball, whose immigrant parents saw their careers shattered by forced exile. The parents founded an amateur troupe and little Charles admired them. Philippe Rège quotes Aznavour on this subject : “I have always kept in my heart an infinite tenderness for these frustrated actors and singers (…) it was undoubtedly by discovering everything they had endured (…) that the child I I understood that their destiny, on stage, would also be mine.”
In November 1935, Pierre Fresnay directed Margot by Édouard Bourdet in Marigny. He hires Charles. He is 11 years. A representation, but a photo in the program, Philippe Rège tells us. On stage, Yvonne Printemps and Jacques Dumesnil. You could find worse as first stage companions. Ten francs per repetition and fourteen francs per representation. “I took a few francs from the amounts earned and gave the rest to my mother who managed our finances.”
“I came to the cinema as an actor on tiptoe”, said Aznavour, but it is withc The Head Against the Walls by Georges Franju in 1957 that he entered the big leagues. France Roche declared at the time : “Charles Aznavour, as a melancholic little clown, evokes Chaplin, but more sincerely tender”. Then comes the New Wave. Godard hesitates then gives up hiring the singer to Breathless. VSIt will ultimately be Belmondo who wins this role and whose interpretation will go down in the history of cinema.
The other New Wave director is François Truffaut. It’s the fragility that actor Aznavour carries around that seduces the director : “Charles’ vulnerability was that of Jean Gabin, in the past, when he did not necessarily have the good role, the Gabin of The Human Beast.” It will therefore be Charlie Kohler in Shoot the pianist, a scenario adapted from the novel by David Goodis. A widowed pianist taking refuge in a cabaret who will soon be confronted by robust gangsters. A film noir, homage to Hollywood noir cinema.
Aznavour plays a shy character, self-effacing and devastated by his wife’s suicide. Truffaut knew that all the actor’s talent would lie in these discreet attitudes, far from the braggarts. It takes all the talent and restraint of the actor to make this role profound and moving. François Truffaut found his adult alter ego in Aznavour just as he found his child alter ego in Jean-Pierre Léaud, Philippe Rège tells us.
Aznavour, actor, is the praise of this fragility. The harsh criticism of his physique and his voice almost kept him from fame as a singer. In the cinema, the same petty remarks will not prevent him from being at the top of the bill. The fame and schedule of the world star that Aznavour has become will, unfortunately, prevent new collaborations.
Aznavour navigates between auteur cinema – he is an icon of the New Wave – and the commercial cinema with which it flirts. Over the course of the films, he cultivated his acting skills. On set, Aznavour has the gift of changing registers. “We know the actor Aznavour’s ability to alternate registers, sometimes during the same scene. Moving from melancholy to cheerfulness, from shyness to extroversion“, writes Philippe Rège. And he cites in France-Soir in 1966, Robert Chazal who wrote : He plays his role of amazed Pierrot with extraordinary simplicity of means. He has so much talent that he manages to make us forget that he is Charles Aznavour.”
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Aznavour may not have had the career he might have hoped for. He himself qualified “acting actor”. He did not hesitate to declare : “I’m not proud of everything I’ve done. I got lost in some hell of a mess ! In my chaotic filmography, I only save Duvivier, Franju, Mocky, Réné Clair, Claude Chabrol and François Truffaut. It’s not much in fifty movies.”
False modesty surely, because how many actors would have dreamed of writing their names on posters of films made by such great directors.
Alongside films such asA taxi to Tobruk with Lino Ventura or The drum of Volker Schlöndorff which will remain in the memories of moviegoers, it is tasty to go through the few naughts that are embedded in his career. The history of cinema would be nothing without these turnips. To name just one, and not the least, Bourgeois follies by the nevertheless impeccable Claude Chabrol. “A dismaying vaudeville” said Philippe Rège. Chabrol adds : “A deliberately stupid film.” But thanks to this film, six years later, Chabrol and Aznavour found themselves in “The Hatter’s Ghost” with Michel Serrault as partner. And it is Chabrol who will speak best about the actor Aznavour : “Charles has a formidable strength which is very rare, it is that he has the most moving eyes in international cinema.”
“Aznavour, a cinematic destiny” by Philippe Rège published by Éditions Hugo Doc 220 pages, 18.50 euros.
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Extract :
The first piece represented, harlequin magician by Jacques Copeau directed by Jean Dasté, offers Charles Aznavour the title role. His entrance on stage, hanging on a rope, does not go unnoticed. “I embellished the role with lots of personal stuff. With the experience acquired as Cigalon, I knew the surprises of the tours : the poorly placed decorations that fall on you, the curtain that gets stuck. Harlequin could, through his particular gifts, overcome all inconveniences, all catastrophes (…). I could do acrobatics, play a little guitar, I could dance, sing, all that made the character. If I was just talking, I don’t think I was playing well, but it all made for a good Harlequin.”
Other pieces will follow : African Love by Prosper Mérimée, The Annoying by Molière, in which he plays a swordsman, and Harlequin polished by love of Marivaux. At the end of each performance, Charles performs a few songs drawn from French heritage. “Charles was extremely gifted as an actorconfirms José Quaglio, but he already had a passion for music and, as soon as the opportunity presented itself, he would take up the piano to play and sing. However, none of us, at the time, would have imagined that he would dedicate himself entirely to singing. For us, he was above all an actor. You can feel it in the way he sings. ; he works on his texts in depth, like an actor works on a play. You don’t need to see him on stage to realize that. This is not a question of gestures, but of simple staging of words. Just by listening, it is obvious that Aznavour has put to good use all of this rigor and control that he learned in the theater. Which also explains the astonishing things he was able to achieve in the cinema.” (page 23)