Bertrand Blier or the journey of an iconoclast who became a classic

Bertrand Blier has always preferred to express himself through images rather than improvised words. His confidences in the media remained rare. INA-Madelen has placed a documentary on its site The unrepentant iconoclast of which we invite you to discover a short extract. The screenwriter confides his preference for characters he considers anti-heroes. It is through them that he has constructed personal films where, in the dialogues, there is a mixture of humor and insolence, even provocation.

How did it get there? Have the cinema ” at home “ with Bernard Blier as his father, played a huge role in his discovery of the universe and behind the scenes of the seventh art. From his young years, he regularly met directors and actors who came to dine at the house. The turning point came during a conversation with Henri-Georges Clouzot. The way the director of Goldsmiths’ Quay spoke of his passion had a real influence on his desire to take up, in his own way, the family torch.

After literary studies, in 1960 he became Georges Lautner’s assistant during the filming of Black monocle with Paul Meurisse. Bertrand Blier later admitted that he owed this first job to a friendly request from his father to the director, and specified that it was the only time in his life where he benefited from a piston.

Two years later, he signed a documentary Hitler, don’t know in which he questions 11 adolescents about their vision of love and work and the way they envisage the future in a time that will later be called “the glorious thirty”. In 1967, he embarked on the adventure of fiction for the first time with If I were a spy. Despite the presence of Bernard Blier in the lead, the film was a failure. The screenwriter-director then understands that in the absence of substantial financial resources, competing with James Bond on his own turf is mission impossible.

The day after May 68, convinced that it was urgent to lift certain taboos, he began to write a novel entitled The waltzers. Just a few weeks after its release, film producers were bidding to buy the rights to adapt it to the screen. Georges Lautner offers to direct the film but, despite the friendship he has for him, Bertrand Blier refuses: this story is his baby and he will not leave it to anyone else to transpose it into images. He discovered Patrick Dewaere, a beginner at the Café de la Gare, then, thanks to Coluche, met Miou-Miou. He finally meets Gérard Depardieu, then unknown, who puts pressure on him. He wants to play Jean-Claude: take it and not leave it! Blier gives in and will never regret it. If, when the film was released, critics lashed out against what they considered to be vulgar and scandalous images, the public responded to this innovative feature film. We will record nearly six million entries.

The rest of the journey is made up of a mixture of triumphs and semi-successes, even failures immediately forgotten to move on to something else. Over the decades, recognition from the public will be added to that of professionals. Buffet froid et Our story received a César for best screenplay while Too beautiful for you earned him those for best screenplay, best director, and best film, as well as a Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. In his career, the supreme consecration however remains this Foreign Film Oscar obtained in 1978 for Prepare your tissues. The idea was born one afternoon while listening to a Clarinet Concerto by Mozart. Characters and their reactions to this classic had started to race through his head. Three hours later, he had written down the outline of their journey. In the chalet in the mountains, where he spent a few days, however, he absolutely did not imagine that this starting point would propel him to the summits.