When Alain Chabat presented Didier in Première: “It’s a friend’s film”
“An expensive buddy movie, but a buddy movie.”
TMC will rebroadcast tonight Didier. At its output, Alain Chabat was on the cover of First, precisely from number 239 (February 1997). His comedy about a dog who turns into a man and becomes a soccer player was written especially for Jean-Pierre Bacri, who died last year. The result was well received by the editorial staff, receiving three stars from Gilles Verdiani, who hailed “the invention and the humor of this first film” : “Bending over backwards with a story to sleep tall, being interested for an hour and a half in a totally impossible character, it’s a tour de force.”
A great lover of puns, he was served from the front page “Chabat-da-ouah-ouah” ! Recalling his taste for this type of humour, he admitted having peeled back and forth the canine register, even if he assured that he could have even more “abuse” puns that have dog: “I took a lot of them off! The other day, I had found one, and I was like, ‘Damn, that one would have been nice.’ (…) One that I like is: ‘He has a really canine look’. It doesn’t make you laugh at all moreover.
Didier, it’s a tour de force (review)
During the interview, Chabat presented Didier as his first film: “The City of Fear was a Berberian film. We just wrote and storyboarded with him, but on set, we stood at attention. He was the boss.” He also said that he first wanted to shoot a short film, before being pushed by Dominique Farrugia to turn it into a feature: “It’s the mystery of ideas, we don’t know where it comes from… Right after The City of Fear, I wanted to make a short film with Bacri on this idea… There were only two or three things, including ‘we don’t smell like ass’, and a cute little ending… And then Farruge told me that I could make a real movie out of it and advised me to rework.” It was also he who advised him to immerse Didier in the world of football, which he knew nothing about.
Happy with the result, Chabat also insisted on the side “buddies movie”starting with his great friend Jean-Pierre Bacri (also in cameo in The City of Fear Or Santa & Co.And scriptdoctor on Asterix and Obelix: Mission Cleopatra), which plays one of two main roles here. We also come across “Liberatore, Les Nuls, Josiane… It’s a friends’ film, an expensive friends’ film, but a friends’ film. (…) (I wrote) the role of Bacri for Bacri, that’s for sure And it would have really pissed me off if he said no. And Didier, it would have been good for me to have someone else play him, but Berri (Claude Berri, the producer, editor’s note), that doesn’t didn’t interest him at all, and neither did Jean-Pierre! (…) So, no, I’m not tired of Bacri sulking. I love this ‘not easy to access’ side. In life too “, from the start, he voluntarily puts a small distance. It’s good because it requires an effort on each side. But it’s not really my character. He is world champion in the side ‘I’m pissed at everything .'”
Seeking to multiply the good valves, Alain Chabat also justified his need to sometimes launch a few spades against racism, homophobia or sexism: “You know the theory of 3D, it’s when it’s Dancing, when it’s Messing around and when it Denounces. In Didier, it was difficult to deal with, these fucking skins: We went through a lot of stuff ending with pirates of Asterix who arrive, who take a tan and who leave. There is my little political message to me, which, I hope, does not interfere with the reading. Besides, the skins are, in my opinion, less of a ‘message’ than ordinary racism, anti-fags, anti-niggers. I liked it more to make normal guys talk, who pass by and say while kidding: ‘How are you fags, are we having fun?’ or who say, among whites, ‘that gentle savage’ speaking of a black man. As Bacri says in the film: ‘We are not ‘obligated’ to say ‘idiot nigger!’ It doesn’t take up more space than that, but I liked to say it.”
Trailer of Didier :
Didier: Alain Chabat’s hilarious comedy comes out in 4K
