How comedian Louis de Funes became the world's most popular gendarme

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

With "Gendarme" began the triumphant success of Louis de Funes as a great French comedian, and it was the film from this series that became the last in the actor's career. Mr. Cruchot not only made the whole world laugh, watching the adventures of law enforcement officers from a small town on the Cote d'Azur, he also turned this very town into one of the most popular resorts in the Mediterranean in a short time.

Theft, lazy gendarmes and the idea of the film

Legend has it that the idea for a film about the adventures of gendarmes in Saint-Tropez was born to screenwriter Richard Balducci when he became a victim of a theft: a camera was stolen from his convertible, and it happened in the same city. The local law enforcement officers did not show any particular agility in the search for the stolen, but Balducci decided to write a comedy script that would show the gendarmes in a comic light. Director Jean Giraud approved both the idea and the script itself, all that remained was to call the actor for the main role.

It now seems impossible that Monsieur Louis Cruchot had a different look, but then the idea of inviting Louis de Funes to his role seemed rather risky. The producers expressed the opinion that the actor would not "collect the box office", but Giraud then managed to achieve his goal, and in the fall of 1964 the same gendarme who was to become the "face of Saint-Tropez" looked at the audience from the screens of cinemas.

The beginning of the film was black and white - it showed the life of the protagonist and his daughter before moving to Saint-Tropez, while working in the Hautes Alps, when Cruchot, hunting various petty crooks and robbers, was promoted with a transfer to the Cote d'Azur. Arriving at a new duty station as a corporal in the corps, he meets the head of the local gendarmerie - his chief petty officer Gerber, gendarmes Fugas, Merlot, Trikar and Berliko, and his daughter Nicole, at first a shy provincial girl in an old-fashioned dress, gradually becomes almost an idol of the local golden youth.

"The Gendarme of Saint-Tropez" was conceived as a light comedy, and at first there was no question about any series of films, Giraud only tried to shoot a funny story about the capture of nudists on the beaches of Saint-Tropez in two summer months, and about the adventures with a stolen picture of Rembrandt - all this in the sun-drenched southern city. By the way, the hunt for nudists in Saint-Tropez did take place: shortly before the filming of the film, an operation was carried out and more than twenty people were detained - of course, in a slightly different way than shown on the movie screen.

In August 1964, the filmmakers had a serious problem with writing music for the film: the holidays were in full swing, the composers left, and it was only with great difficulty that Giraud was able to engage Raymond Lefebvre for this role. This is how Cruchot's daughter's song "Douliou-douliou Saint-Tropez" and the famous "March of the Gendarmes" appeared, which was repeated in each new film in the series.

Success and its development: how the continuation of the adventures of gendarme Cruchot was filmed

The film's success has surpassed the crew's wildest expectations. Somehow, despite the absence of the Eiffel Tower and Montmartre music in the frame, it turned out to be surprisingly French. Even the game of petanque, the favorite pastime of pensioners, was given attention in the film. It is in petanque that gendarmes who are not very burdened by the service play on the beach.

After the release of the film, Louis de Funes, as they say, woke up famous - despite the fact that the list of his film works by that time was already quite solid. But since that time begins the era of the world-famous roles of the comedian - which are only films about Fantômas. In the wake of the popularity of the first "Gendarme", shooting of the sequel, the second part, entitled "The Gendarme in New York", began. The characters of the first part of the film epic about gendarmes go overseas to the international police congress, and Nicole, Crucho's daughter, rides like a hare and then every now and then finds herself in the path of her father, who is forced to believe in hallucinations.

In the third film, Louis de Funes's beloved partner appears, whom he once vowed to call in each of his films, since she brought him good luck - Claude Jansac. Subsequently, she will repeatedly play the role of his on-screen wife - as in the films "Big Vacation", "Oscar", "Frozen", here Claude played the lady of the heart, Monsieur Cruchot, the widow of a police colonel named Joseph. However, the wedding will not be long in coming, and Joseph will appear in further films about the gendarme. True, in the fifth of them, in the film "The Gendarme and the Aliens", the role of Joseph will be played by another actress, Maria Moban.

In the fourth film, "The Gendarme for a Walk," you can see the ancestral castle of Louis de Funes, Chateau de Clermont, it was within its walls that the house where the Cruchot couple lives after the retirement of the head of the family was filmed.

The last film about the gendarme is the last work of Louis de Funes and Jean Giraud

The last picture of the series was released eighteen years after "The Gendarme of Saint-Tropez", in October 1982. By that time, director Jean Giraud was no longer alive - he had died during filming, a few months earlier. His assistant Tony Aboyants completed his work. A few months after the premiere, Louis de Funes passed away. The film "Gendarme and gendarmes" (or "Gendarmes and gendarmes in skirts") tells the story of the adventures of the gendarmes of Saint-Tropez and new young female employees of the brigade, who suddenly began to disappear one after another. In this film, only two of the four subordinates of Cruchot, familiar to the viewer, remain - the gendarmes Tricar and Berliko, but two new ones appear.

Not only Louis de Funes became a star of French cinema after the release of "The Gendarme of Saint-Tropez". Michel Galabru, his screen manager, was also open to the general public. But Genevieve Grad, who played in the first three tapes of this epic, soon left the cinema, switching to professions not related to acting. The city of Saint-Tropez was for many years in the center of attention of tourists - it also owed its popularity to the film Fat.

The famous building that appears in the film actually belonged to the gendarmerie of this city from 1879 to 2003. Four years ago, it housed the Museum of Gendarmerie and Cinema of Saint-Tropez.

And here - a little about the history of the Cote d'Azur.