The Leetchi kitty created by the Friends of François Truffaut association on the initiative of Serge Toubiana currently accounts for more than 20,000 euros.
An emblematic figure of the New Wave, Jean-Pierre Léaud, 79, assured AFP on Wednesday via his agent. “much better”, and thanked the dozens of people who answered the call from relatives worried about him, paying more than 20,000 euros. At the origin of this collection, a call from a relative, the former president of the Cinémathèque française Serge Toubiana, to his knowledge in the world of cinema, to come to the aid of the actor, who according to him was in a very precarious psychological, physical and financial situation, affected in particular by the death of Jean-Luc Godard in September 2022.
“A precious help”
These requests were coupled with the opening of an online kitty, on the initiative of the head of the Association of Friends of François Truffaut, Armand Hennon. Result: many marks of emotion on social networks and more than 20,000 euros offered in three days by 400 admirers of the actor.
“Although deeply affected by the disappearance of Jean-Luc Godard, with whom we were still talking a few months ago about a future project, I would nevertheless like to reassure my friends: I am doing much better thanks to them, and intend to find again very soon the way to filming!”, said Jean-Pierre Léaud on Wednesday evening, in a statement sent to AFP. “I express my deep gratitude and my emotion at the many messages of affection received from all continents. The testimonies of your generosity, which I receive as so many marks of friendship, will be of great help to me in my daily life. “, he continues, thanking Serge Toubiana and the Friends of François Truffaut for their friendship and their “solicitude”.
A figure of the New Wave
Serge Toubiana had explained to AFP that he had recently found Jean-Pierre Léaud very affected, in the Paris apartment of his wife, herself “very tired”. “I asked him what would make them happy. He told me that they would have to go to the sun, to swim”, he had explained. Inseparable from the cinema of François Truffaut, who created for him the character of Antoine Doinel, 400 shots To love on the runLéaud was very touched by the successive disappearance of the great figures of the time, and lives in precarious conditions, in particular on the psychic level, he added.
“We are going to give him this money and see what his most urgent needs are,” had added Armand Hennon, specifying not to know the exact financial situation of the actor. More than sixty years after the New Wave, Jean-Pierre Léaud is the best known of the still living faces of this movement which revolutionized cinema. At the end of May, another figure, the discreet director Jacques Rozier, died at the age of 96, two years after being the subject of a solidarity movement because he was evicted from his accommodation.