“With Johnny Hallyday, we never left each other”

The exceptional guest of Le Monde d’Élodie, from Monday December 25 to Friday December 29, 2023, is the singer, lyricist and actor, Eddy Mitchell. He has just published a “best of”: “The album of his life (1964-2021)” including 100 of his emblematic titles and a book: “Eddy Mitchell, my ideal discotheque” in which he has selected 50 albums that have marked his life.

Eddy Mitchell, a true living legend of French song, is also a notable actor in French cinema. When we talk about music, we invariably think of titles: Water mint color (1980), On the road to Memphis (1976), No boogie woogie (1976), The last session (1977) or even You can prepare black coffee (1979) and his five Victoires de la Musique.

When we talk about cinema, we remember this César for best actor for a supporting role for the film Happiness is in the meadow by Étienne Chatiliez in 1995, but also by Gaston Lapouge by Franck Apprederis (1981) or even to Wipe by Bertrand Tavernier (1991).

Eddy Mitchell spends five days with us to tell the photos of his life, the place of music, cinema and the public in this exceptional journey of more than 60 years with: 39 albums, 16 live albums, 500 songs, Victoires de la musique, millions of albums sold and a César.

He has just released a box set entitled Eddy Mitchell – The album of his life, i.e. 100 titles gathered in five CDs, or 50 in three CDs, or even a box set of vinyls. And then there is this book, Eddy Mitchell, my ideal nightclub by Alain Artaud-Macari and Marc Maret published by Hors Collection.

franceinfo: You are this crooner, this constant artist and then, there is another hat which is that of cinema with as a starting point, this father who takes you after school to the cinema. Did you not have this desire to tell and pass on in your turn? Is this how the show “The Last Session” was born?

Eddie Mitchell: Yes, yes, but still, here we embellish things. There was a real desire to make this type of program because at the time, it must be said that television was more lenient, more free. And like me, I had free rein and there were three of us with Gérard Jourd’hui and Patrick Brion, everyone chose their films. When it was Richard Thorpe, it was Patrick Brion because he wanted to collect all his films. When they were comedies, it was Gérard and when they were adventure films, it was me. So the transmission was done normally.

This show will become a meeting place for all French people. We still talk about it today. What memory do you have of it as a presenter?

I have a tiring memory. It lasted 17 years. It’s not the fact that it lasts 17 years, it’s the fact of doing them. We first filmed the interventions of: ” Next week on this screen you will see…“so in a different costume, with different appearances. We shot three or four shows, about a month in one day.

“’The Last Session’ was a tiring show, but it was fun to do.”

Eddie Mitchell

at franceinfo

You are also an actor. Did you dream of becoming one?

No. It happened like that because initially, I acted in films where I was a singer. The first film with Eddie Constantine, notably with Les Chaussettes Noires. Then there was The Parisians by Jacques Poitrenaud (1962), How to succeed in love Or Look for the idol (Michel Boisrond, 1963) with the Black Socks. And then I stopped. Subsequently, it was Bertrand Tavernier who came to pick me up.

There are really two periods as an actor, before and after the 80s. Before, it was small roles, in any case, you were in your own role. And then, we will finally entrust you with roles that you will have to embody. On Bastard, we love you by Claude Lelouch in 2013, you will find Johnny Hallyday. He truly is your greatest traveling companion.

Oh yes, he was there at the very beginning. When I was 15, he was 14. We knew each other like that, we never left each other’s side, it’s true.

A word now about Happiness is in the meadow, which allows you to have this Caesar in a better supporting role. We immediately think of this film when we talk about you. What does it mean to you?

Quite a lot of work, of course, but above all a great friendship with Michel Serrault, Sabine Azéma, and then with the director Étienne Chatiliez, whom I adore. It’s a good film. I like this film because it went very well, it was tiring like all films, but there are plenty of anecdotes that are added to it, which are wonderful.

There is one scene that is legendary, it is that of the restaurant and then there is that of the car!

The car scene is funny because they had everything prepared for us. Unfortunately for them, the people who aped us, our stunt doubles, mine and Sabine’s, were assistants and they were small. And Sabine isn’t necessarily very tall, but anyway, she’s a normal size and I’m a little tall. So for the car, it didn’t work. We had to compose and we were bursting with laughter, because they had rehearsed well: “You stand like this, your hand there.“And I said to them: “But I can’t put my hand there, nor my leg there!”

We talked about cinema, your show, now let’s talk about the song: The last session.

It’s funny because when I wrote the text and proposed it to Pierre Papadiamandis said to me: “Yes, but you already talked about that in another song. Won’t this be a duplicate?“I ask him in which song, I already talked about it. It was in a song which was a B side, which was called It’s OK, where I said at one point that the cinema was going to close. I struggled with it, but I kept it.