“We don’t play there, we talk bullshit, like four friends who look alike, who have differences and things in common“. Eighteen years after its release, The Heart of Men became a cult film and Marc Lavoine earned his reputation as a true actor. Followed by two parts released in 2007 and 2013, this “friends’ film” however marked the life of Line Papin’s husband above all through the laughter, nonsense and jokes exchanged between the four actors (Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Bernard Campan, Gérard Darmon and Marc Lavoine), truly become friends.
“It’s a very strong idea from Marc Esposito, it’s the fifth, and Eric Elmosnino will come after to join us“, he confided to Nathalie Levy during his appearance on the show En aparté on February 7, 2022. However, if the latter arrived in the last opus of the saga, it is because a estrangement opposed the director to Gérard Darmon and that the latter refused to return to work a third time, a situation that Marc Lavoine regrets and on which he confided rather modestly.
“I am very sad about this break that there was in The Heart of Men, The heart of men was broken. When I see Gérard, it’s true that it pains me because I like Gérard a lot, I like Marc a lot and then the three of us can no longer work together, it’s a shame, we have do a lot of things together. But that’s life, that’s how it is“, he explained to Nathalie Lévy.
At the time of the release of Heart of Men 3, the director had more or less explained this estrangement which lasts between them. “It was bullshit: blunders that I took badly, then badly taken again, I wrote things to him that didn’t please him, he wrote me things that didn’t please me… Then the gap dug in. We talk about it in the film by the way: friendship is something to be consumed right away“, he had explained on their history, even though they had been friends for more than thirty years.
Today, they do not seem to have spoken again and despite the sadness of Marc Lavoine, things should not change immediately. However, the father of four takes things philosophically: “It is not serious. You see, when I see these four guys there… I love them. I find them really funny. They amuse me. They each have different origins, slightly different social classes. They are in love. They are complicated“. A beautiful conclusion to a saga that is still so touching!