Who doesn’t remember Sergeant Gerber? We all have in mind this character with a gruff and very French demeanor, right? His role in Bertrand Tavernier’s “The Judge and the Assassin” earned him the César for Best Actor of the Year.
Michel Galabru, this great man, has marked French cinema and today, this exceptional actor treads the boards of theaters. He was supposed to perform at the Acropolis alongside Nadine Capri, Jean Claude De Goros, Isabelle Rougerie, Michelle Dieye, Arnaud Gieye, and Sylvestre Amoussou, playing a retired French teacher in “Monsieur Amédée,” written and directed by Alain Reynaud-Fourton. Unfortunately, on February 8th, the people of Nice will not have the honor of applauding this hilariously entertaining boulevard theater piece.
Before the cancellation was announced, N-P had contacted Mr. Michel Galabru. A great moment! A beautiful meeting!
Nice Premium; Monsieur Amédée, thank you for welcoming us to your class. Can you describe the lessons that are played here?
Michel Galabru: Ah! But no lessons are played here because he’s a retired teacher so he no longer teaches. He’s simply a man who lost his wife, who wasn’t very beautiful, so it’s not a huge loss. He’s retired from teaching. That means small pension, modest means, small shabby apartment, modest car. He hears someone behind him calling for help. Being a good man, he stops. It’s a young lady being chased. He takes her to his place to comfort her and offer her a drink, and it turns out she’s a prostitute. She’s being pursued by a pimp. And from there, a situation is set, which will throw this good teacher who had a perfectly monotonous and regular life suddenly into the ridiculous, the unreal. The pursuer who is a pimp eventually finds his address and accidentally kills himself in the professor’s home, who then begins to gain a reputation as a killer.
N-P: A comedic play!
M.G.: Yes, it becomes very comical! This man is completely innocent, but he finds himself in an environment where there is drug, dead bodies. People mistake him for a big pimp from Colombia. It’s a confusion that makes it quite an amusing play.
N-P: The students are not too unruly?
M.G.: Yes… It’s an environment of marginalized students of prostitution, of drugs… That’s our class!
N-P: Professor Amédée, what do you think of Michel Galabru?
M.G.: Ah, it’s difficult when you’re an artist or pretend to be one. It poses problems because you have doubts. Do you have talent? Some parts of the audience appreciate you, others don’t like you at all. You are in confusion, doubt. If you were sure of having talent, of pleasing everyone, it would be too simple. Life is always complicated. Men sometimes think they’re interesting (laughs) and other times, they doubt terribly. They find no gift, no talent. I compare the life of a star, even though I’m not one, or the life of these people who were highlighted at a certain time to the fireworks on July 14th. Even of a Lolobrigida, even of a Catherine Deneuve… What is a Bardot? It’s a rocket that goes towards the sky. It’s wonderful, it bursts in all colors red, green… People are ecstatic “Ah!” Then, you still hear a vague of jerks and then you see descending large spots of yellowish, viscous light that eventually fall to the ground and it’s total darkness. The person is more or less forgotten. It’s very fast. The time of a rocket, you’re nothing, the public forgets you very quickly.
N-P: Perhaps you need to nurture that flame?
M.G.: Oh! It’s very difficult. Why nurture it? We know anyway that it must die because nothing is eternal. There are young people, you talk to them about great celebrities of the past, they don’t remember… When I was little, I went to the movies to see immense talents like we don’t make today like Jules Berry, Harry Bord, Fernand Ledoux, Louis Jouvet… Magnificent! There is a decadence of the actor.
N-P: What is your most beautiful reward?
M.G.: The César for Best Actor for “The Judge and Assassin”. When I had a good director, I proved that I could do as well as the others. Because I haven’t always been favored. I’ve had a lot of difficulty.
N-P: Before stepping onto the stage, what do you do?
M.G.: Nothing at all. I mentally go over my script because a memory lapse is always possible. Now, there are no more prompters. If you have a lapse, you can’t continue, so what do we do?
N-P: Improvise.
M.G.: Ah! You improvise for two minutes. But you can’t rewrite the play, people won’t follow, it’s not the right repartee. All that’s left is to lower the curtain, it’s a catastrophe. So, you see the apprehension. Memory is a capricious thing. It surely happened to you to meet someone and not remember their name?</p
