There are laughs that sign an identity. That of Vincent Fernandel, Fernandel’s grandson, sounds immediately familiar to the ear when he plays with this formula, linked to the anniversary date of May 8, 1903: “He would have been 120 years old”. “As if he could have reached them, if he had eaten a little less meat or something!” “, he continues on the phone from Paris, where he now lives and works as a storyteller, producer and music publisher. “Commemorations” or “birthday cake rounds”, very little for him. On the other hand, yes, meeting the public at the L’Eden cinema in La Ciotat, as it did on Sunday for a screening of The Red Inn, talking about films, testifying to an era, “it’s gay, it’s joyful”. And that’s how he wants to pass on the memory of his grandfather.
How would you talk about Fernandel to an audience that doesn’t know him?
I am going to give you an example. I ran a theater school and most young students knew who Fernandel was, but few had seen even two or three of his films. And that’s normal, there’s nothing infamous about that. I know very well that at some point time passes and that one cannot be and have been, even if one is called Fernandel. Going to screenings that pay homage to my grandfather allows me to introduce him to an audience that often doesn’t know much about his career. Talking about an actor is a good opportunity to also talk about cinema in general.
Let’s talk about cinema first! What is for you the best gateway to discover his work, which includes 148 films?
I would say that you have to start with the films he made with Marcel Pagnol. It is thanks to him that the public realized, and my grandfather the very first, that he was more than a comedian, a great actor. There are also the films of Henri Verneuil. They made eight together in the 1950s, in different registers. THE Forbidden fruit is one of the films that impressed me the most. My grandfather plays a doctor, an honorable family man, who falls in love with a young woman. It turns his life upside down. In this film, Fernandel is absolutely human. And it was an interesting career choice. Already with this, a little Don Camillo And The Red Inn by Claude Autant-Lara, with whom he only collaborated once, we have a fairly solid essence of Fernandel.
We are not really in the comic register…
I completely understand that people like the comic Fernandel. But he ages less well than in the drama. In the 1950s, my grandfather said it himself: the comic films of the 1930s were much less funny because the way of acting changed, the writing evolved too. The drama speaks of the interior of the human being, which does not change. This is why I would say today: discover the dramatic Fernandel. Because he’s very good at it and the movies stay relevant. As Don Camillo which irons every time because it has stood the test of time. It is first of all a Franco-Italian co-production, so we are in this vein of social Italian cinema. Don Camillo, it’s a political film, taken on the tone of humor, but which tells a relationship between two characters with very different ideas. Politics against the church is a subject that will always remain relevant. This is why they are films that stand the test of time. Afterwards, if it makes people laugh, so much the better. I’m not saying don’t watch Butter cookingalthough I think it’s a very overrated film.
How did Fernandel become such a popular artist?
He was first of all a Marseillais, a true southerner who was brought up in a large family and who started from scratch. His father, Denis, was an accountant during the day and went to sing in the evening in the café-concerts. It was there that Fernandel discovered the entertainment world and fell in love with singers and comedians. He came on stage at a very young age. At the time, you became a star in your city, in your region, and then you went up to Paris. Like Gabin, like Montand, he started with the music hall. Having become famous, he triggered riots when he went out, he was the first to be surprised. “But why don’t they let me buy my bread?” “, he said. He was not a socialite. He loved peace and quiet at home more than anything. And loved to go fishing at 5 am, to be quiet. He was an excellent fisherman.
What remains of Fernandel in Marseille?
There is nothing left at all. The bust in front of his birthplace… I don’t know the sculptor and don’t want to be hurtful, but he’s way off the mark I think. At the History Museum, there is very little about Fernandel. In absolute terms, I don’t care if there’s nothing concrete left. I don’t have a museum mind. On the death of my father Franck Fernandel, who was a singer, we also found it preferable to sell the family home because, for us, it was a page of life that was turning. But I find it unfortunate that nothing is done in this city to pass on this memory. I’m not making myself the defender of Fernandel, but of a whole culture that we no longer defend. I am thinking, for example, of Jean-Claude Izzo. Who talks about him in Marseille today? Alexandre Toursky left his name to a theatre, but who knows him? I am southern, I was born in this region, but we have moved from culture to folklore. The city of Marseille has certainly never done anything, but we ourselves, the family, have not been proactive on the issue. Because it’s not in our DNA, unlike Nicolas Pagnol who does an exceptional job of remembering his grandfather’s work. But the initiatives generally come from him. Things, that said, had to be done 20 or 30 years ago, when there was still money for culture. The city of Marseille has many other priorities today than worrying about this memory, and I understand that very well.