“Playing is like returning to the land of childhood”

In Cracked, in theaters August 28, Pierre Richard plays alongside people suffering from mental disorders. Close in its approach to Un p’tit truc en plus, the film offers a role with a thousand nuances to the 90-year-old actor. The actor discusses this new experience and the key moments of his life as an artist.

You play with non-professionals in this film mixing fiction and reality. Explain to us…

We shot this feature film at the Arc-en-ciel house in Marmande, in Lot-et-Garonne. This associative place welcomes vulnerable people, socially and psychologically. Apart from a few other professional actors such as Bernard Le Coq or Charlotte de Turckheim, the protagonists of this fiction are played by the beneficiaries of this support. The director, Christophe Duthuron, with whom I have already worked in The old stoves wanted them to play their own roles. I had an extraordinary experience, as these people were so authentic and spontaneous in expressing their emotions.

Was this the first time you shared the screen with mentally ill people?

The term “sick” is not appropriate. Rather, it refers to people who have been weakened by life, some of whom suffer from mental disorders. “Each of us has a hidden crack that remains invisible when life is good for us,” explains my character. But if a shock occurs, such as a romantic breakup, an accident or the loss of a job, this vulnerability can be revealed. It is part of our humanity. Hence the need for places like the Rainbow House to receive those who have suffered life’s accidents. In the film, the center is threatened with closure. I play its director, a character who does everything he can to defend this precious space.

What is so unique about this place?

Created in 2009, it is inspired by the work of Dr. François Tosquelles, a psychiatrist who wanted to avoid the isolation of his patients at all costs. To alleviate their feelings of loneliness, he sought to abolish the boundaries between patients and caregivers. In this home, everyone gets involved in daily tasks, according to their abilities. This autonomous management helps to rebuild, resocialize, and take responsibility in order to achieve gentle emancipation.

“It’s isolation that kills,” your character says in the film.

In his therapeutic clubs, Dr. Tosquelles offered patients “a range of possible futures,” sparking encounters to get energy flowing between humans. Whether cracked or not, we all need the group to get us moving. I live in the Corbières massif, in Occitanie, and I observe how much loneliness can be a source of suffering. In the countryside, places of conviviality like grocery stores and cafés have gradually disappeared. It’s a shame, because by telling each other about their daily joys and sorrows, the inhabitants created a bond. Now locked in our cars and our houses, face-to-face with our smartphones and our TV screens, we have so much trouble daring to meet in the flesh! This generates an irrational fear of the other, of the one I don’t know.

What are the possible bulwarks against this temptation to withdraw?

Being moved together… is essential. Going to the show is a way to bring us closer together. If so many spectators remember with pleasure films like

The goat Or The cronies it’s because they experienced real moments of sharing in theaters, when the individual screen was not yet in place. Turning to your seat neighbor, for the time of a laugh or a tear, is to experience a moment of fraternity. Fleeting certainly, but very real.

We can clearly see this when reading your memories1: you are a man of encounters…

It’s true, my friendships have structured my life as an artist. I was very stimulated by my connections with poets such as Georges Moustaki, Jacques Higelin, Claude Nougaro, with actors like Jean Carmet, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Michel Serrault, Bernard Blier. I also had a great bond with my dear Victor Lanoux. We started out together in cabarets in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, in Paris, where we performed as a duo for five years. One of our sketches, entitled The slaps and inspired by the world of Raymond Devos, has also had millions of views on the INA website!

In 1966, everything accelerated: you crossed paths with the director Yves Robert…

This meeting marked my life! “You are neither a young leading man, nor a Delon, nor a Blier,” he told me after the filming of Alexander the Blessed (1967). “Besides, you’re not an actor. You’re a character! It’s up to you to make your own cinema.” That’s the best advice anyone could give me. A year later, I came back to see Yves Robert with the script for Distracted my first film as a director. I had found my burlesque character of a lunar dreamer. Yves then had me act in The tall blond guy with a black shoe and great directors like Gérard Oury, Claude Zidi and Francis Veber were interested in me. My career was launched!

“Cracked or not, we all need the group to get us moving.”

The gestures of your distracted character are reminiscent of the dancer you almost became…

Crazy about music hall, I wanted to be the French Gene Kelly! I also took lessons with American teachers, because my legs loved jazz. In the 1960s, I auditioned for the choreographer Maurice Béjart who was looking for actors who could dance. During the audition, I did a bit of everything. Even a strange backflip (laughs) . The day I learned that Béjart had finally chosen me for his show, Victor Lanoux told me that Georges Brassens wanted us for his first part at Bobino. I chose Brassens. And I don’t regret it! Because today, I wouldn’t have enough strength to dance, while I can still act. (Smile)

At the end of the 1960s, you had another encounter, with the Dominican Maurice Cocagnac.

What was your connection with him?

Newlyweds and broke, my wife and I went on holiday to Belle-Île-en-Mer where Maurice Cocagnac was launching the great adventure of L’Arche de Noé, a chaplaincy made up of young actors, dancers and musicians. Among them, the actor Laurent Terzieffor the composer of religious music Pierick Houdy. When we arrived, we met this joyful band who were waiting for us on the port. A guitarist, Father Cocagnac was also a singer-songwriter and had just recorded his first 45 rpm. I was not a practicing Christian. However, on Sunday mornings, I often ended up following the small group to mass because we loved singing together. There was a wonderful atmosphere of friendship between us.

And then?

Father Cocagnac and I always maintained a close relationship. I sometimes went to visit him at the Saint-Jacques convent in Paris. A former member of the Resistance, he was a man of great openness and profound culture. He had traveled to China, India, Japan, and Mexico, countries in which, with the help of Dominican communities, he had studied a large number of spiritual traditions. 2 “How did you manage to go from Fine Arts to religious life?” I asked him one day. And that is how he spoke to me about the blossoming of his vocation. Our dialogue continued until his death in 2006.

For forty years, you have also been a winegrower in Gruissan, in the Aude. How were you welcomed in this environment, you, the movie star?

At first, my presence greatly challenged the winegrowers. What was I doing there, me, the Parisian? My consistency in this activity for decades created trust. We shared our fears and hopes, particularly around the impact of climate change on wine production. I passed the keys to my business to Christophe, my eldest son, about ten years ago.

“I want to continue acting, because inactivity exhausts me! Being on stage or on set is like a rejuvenation cure.”

What did this wine-growing activity represent in your life?

People always say that I don’t have my feet on the ground, and that’s somewhat true. This activity has forced me to anchor myself firmly in earthly realities. To look carefully at the sky to watch for rain or hail! I still live in Gruissan for a large part of the year. Formerly owned by the bishops of Narbonne, the estate is located on a peninsula in the Corbières maritimes. My vines border two ponds, canals and the Mediterranean. There, between land and sea, I marvel every day at the beauty of nature, of which I am an ardent defender.

You are 90 years old this year and you continue to work as an actor. As valiant as your vines, are you inexhaustible?

Pain in my knees, back, legs. In recent years, I have approached filming with a feeling of fatigue. Age, no doubt… But I want to continue acting, because inactivity exhausts me! Being on stage or on a film set is like a rejuvenation cure that gives me a feeling of mental and physical well-being. Acting is like returning to the land of my childhood, a country that I have always loved to visit.

1) Memories of a Distracted Man by Pierre Richard with Christophe Duthuron, Ed. Le Cherche midi, 176 p.; €16.90.

2) The books of Father Maurice Cocagnac are published by Editions du Cerf.