They owe him a lot. Florence Foresti, Blanche Gardin, Nora Hamzawi, Caroline Vigneaux, Camille Chamoux or Bérengère Krief… because Valérie Lemercier broke this glass ceiling which suggested that a funny girl could not be sexy, bright and modern at the same time. A little crazy, heir to Jacqueline Maillan or Sylvie Joly, the artist has created a relevant, strong, unpredictable persona, practicing with a certain science the observation of his contemporaries and their faults, as well as that of social environments. or socio-professional. Comedian, actress, screenwriter, director, singer on occasion, dancer as soon as she sees the possibility of sketching a few steps, unforgettable mistress of ceremonies of two César ceremonies, good client of talkshows, Valérie Lemercier combines talents, until ‘to interpret herself, at 56, her clone of Celine Dion, from 5 to 50 years old, in Aline, her highly anticipated new film. “I have loved playing children for a long time,” she told Paris Match on the eve of the film’s initial release, postponed due to the pandemic, “I mean playing with my body to convey childish emotions… And then the children, we can only make them work four hours a day. Me, you could have eighteen hours on the set! ” His childhood is rural and bourgeois. Valérie Lemercier was born in Dieppe on March 9, 1964. Her father is a well-to-do farmer and mayor of her commune of Gonzeville, in Seine-Maritime, a village of a hundred inhabitants where she grew up with her three sisters. From childhood, she reveals a character that is both shy and mocking, and takes pleasure in imitating the members of her family whose character tics she has grasped with remarkable acuity. After these beginnings of comedy, she went to the Conservatoire de Rouen and moved to Paris to complete her theater studies, while running the castings and accumulating small jobs: she would be a saleswoman at Printemps. In October 1982, she obtained her first and brief television appearance in L’Académie des 9, a game presented by Jean-Pierre Foucault. But it was in 1988, in the Palace series and in the role of Lady Palace, that she was noticed. The same year, she made her film debut in Snowy in May alongside Michel Piccoli. In the series as on the screen, she imposes the character of a young bourgeois stuck, a little ungrateful, and displays a conservative allure, disguised as Simone Veil from the sub-prefecture.
CAREER
1988: PALACE In Lady Palace, she bursts the screen with her quaint character and delusional common sense.
1989 AND 1990: ONE-WOMANSHOW For her first show, resumed the following year, she won a Molière.
1993: THE VISITORS In Béatrice de Montmirail, her slaughter earns her a first César in the supporting role, a reward rarely given to a comedy.
1999: THE BEHIND The second film written and directed by her, in which she plays the role of a boy.
2006: ORCHESTRA ARMCHAIRS A second César is awarded to him for his role in this film by Danièle Thompson, also nominated for the Oscars.
2008: AGATHE CLÉRY The Chatiliez film is not a success. Valérie Lemercier is a racist who turns black following an illness: a subject undoubtedly too sensitive.
2015: VALÉRIE LEMERCIER AT THE THÉÂTRE DU CHÂTELET Fifth sold-out one-woman-show. And still no image saved for eternity.
2021: ALINE 182 costumes, a monumental production to pay tribute to her idol, Céline Dion. The release of the most anticipated French film at the end of 2020 had been delayed due to confinement.
The actress broke her image of an old maid before its time to become super hype.
Liberated woman
“I feel like I was very old, very young,” the director once said, “Now I’m very young, very old.” It is clear that the comedian is infinitely sexier at 50 than at 20. Her first appearances, in Palace or her first films, showed her as a stuck bourgeois, with a wise bun, round cheeks and dowager’s suits. “Not to be the pretty one, especially”, she tells Paris Match, to explain her sorority with Celine Dion, “I too heard reflections on my physique when I was a teenager.” Like the heroine of her new film, Valérie Lemercier, over time, has become a beast of fashion – she was also invited to parade for Jean Paul Gaultier in 2011 -, and an iconic Parisian, at the front row of catwalks and in the fashion pages of women’s magazines. The butterfly has emerged from its chrysalis.
The general public adopted him as an advertising figure and took over, for decades, his thunderous “It was me who did it”, taken from a spot for a brand of cakes. The following year, she played her first one-woman-show at the Théâtre du Splendid. She then made a decision from which she would never budge: not to let her show filmed so that her spectators would keep the memory intact. It thus ignores the hefty revenues from DVDs, then television broadcasts, VOD and finally streaming. But each of her one-woman-shows (five to date) will be a resounding success, reserved for those who buy theater tickets to see her offer sketches of her hand, in which she creates unforgettable characters of biting humor. Valérie Lemercier does not do stand-ups but sketches, like so many small pieces, which have earned her a Victoire de la musique (1997) and three Molière (1991, 1996 and 2001) for best comedy show. The cinema quickly grabbed its comic potential. She has been seen in around thirty films and twice won the César for Best Supporting Actor, in The Visitors (1994) and in Fauteuils d’orchestre (2007). She is also entrusted with leading roles, as in the squeaky comedy Agathe Cléry (2008), by Etienne Chatiliez, or the drama Main dans la main (2012), by Valérie Donzelli, a film in which she does not hesitate to play a nude scene on the Champs-Élysées. She also practices song, for pleasure and without any hint of success, releasing an album in 1996, Valérie Lemercier sings, which, despite the charm of the single Goûte mes frites, was a bitter failure. She then recorded duets with the English group Divine Comedy, then Françoise Ha rdy, Ch ristophe Willem, Vincent Delerm or Marc Lavoine on their respective albums. Noted for her talent as a good customer on TV, she was invited to various promotions and was propelled as mistress of the Cesar ceremony, in 2006 and 2007. Her personal interpretation of the dance of Louis de Funès, in Les Aventures de Rabbi Jacob, remains to this day one of the greatest moments of joy of this event, deemed long and boring. After more than thirty years of career, without any compromise, having suffered very rare failures, Valérie Lemercier keeps a special status, that of a humorist for whom writing is a requirement, far from the facilities of a stand. up become the norm. ¦
She played naked on the Champs-Élysées
Caesar Clash
It was during the 2010 ceremony, of which she was the mistress of ceremony, that Valérie Lemercier parodies Juliette Binoche in a short sketch, introduced as the trailer for a biopic that would be dedicated to the Oscar-winning French actress. Lemercier gently mocks the somewhat intellectual side claimed by Binoche who at the same time does advertisements for cosmetics.
Absent, the person concerned treated the matter with contempt. But not his agent: “He yelled at me,” said Valérie. She (Binoche) made it known that she had not looked at him. She will never be able to see it because it was censored in the DVD of the ceremony. The people in the middle, who laughed at the rehearsals, broke away from me. Since then, I have been working for the Caesar. It’s stupid, I liked to present the evening. ”
Motley loves …
The comedian had for several years as a companion the singer, composer and producer Bertrand Burgalat, who signed the music for his first two films, and with whom she has remained very friends. They separate in 1997. She then shares for seven years the life of the star of the bar Hervé Temime – lawyer of Bernard Tapie, Catherine Deneuve, Gérard Depardieu, Roman Polanski, Nathalie Baye or Alain Afflelou -, and who plays the roles of magistrate in the films Polisse, Mon Roi and Un Prophète. In 2015, Valérie Lemercier seems to have found love on the arm of Mathias Kiss, a contemporary artist and designer who has won numerous awards.
To see also:
Eric Caracal