A national tribute will be paid to Jean-Paul Belmondo, who died on Monday, at the Invalides on Thursday, September 9, announced the Elysee Palace on Tuesday.
Sacred monster of French cinema, Jean-Paul Belmondo died on Monday at his Parisian home at 88 years old. The actor was one of the most popular figures of the 7th Art, with 80 films to his credit, from action films to the finest hours of auteur cinema. He had been hospitalized at the beginning of the year for general fatigue.
“A national treasure”
Jean-Paul Belmondo leaves behind him unforgettable roles, young premier with a cigarette in his mouth in “Breathless” or hanging from a helicopter in Venice in “Le Guignolo”.
“It will forever remain The Magnificent”, reacted Monday Emmanuel Macron. “We all found ourselves” in Jean-Paul Belmondo, he added, referring to “a national treasure, all in panache and bursts of laughter”, “a sublime hero and a familiar figure”. “Among our great actors, he was the one who won hands down the palm of the public”, also underlined Emmanuel Macron.
Grand Officer of the National Order of Merit
Emmanuel Macron decorated Jean-Paul Belmondo in November 2019 at the Elysée, making him a grand officer of the Legion of Honor. Two years earlier, in May 2017, during his last week at the Elysee Palace, François Hollande had decorated him with the insignia of a Grand Officer of the National Order of Merit.
For his part, Prime Minister Jean Castex declared himself “very sad” on Monday after the death of one who was “truly a legend of French cinema, a very great symbol of our cinematographic heritage”.