Add Michel Serrault, the French actor to the RIP list.
He passed away a few days ago.
This actor who benefited a lot from experience
and age, will be remembered by Avians essentially for his
very good acting in two crime movies that are well above
average, amongst his more than hundred films:
"Garde à ¶ue" with Lino Ventura, directed by Claude
Miller (loosely based on a novel by John
Wainwright)-1981
"Mortelle Randonn饔 more noir and a bit
surrealist, but a very good film- by Claude Miller, based on
the novel: The Eye of the Beholder (Marc Behm)- 1983
He came from the lower end of French filmed
comedies, accepting roles in any kind of movies. Being better
than the films he played in, he soon was spotted by
unconventional directors, as Serrault always could find his
way in cold or noir humor: he played in some by J-P Mocky. He
was also talented to render characters with unbalanced
psychology having a frightening side, ambiguity.
This made that he collaborated to many good crime
movies, some being close to comedy, others very dramatic,
like
"Nelly & Monsieur Arnaud" by Claude Sautet
(very good- light humor)-1995
"Assassin(s)" by Mathieu Kassovitz - 1997
"Les fantô¥³ du chapelier" by Chabrol (based on
Simenon)-1982
"Buffet froid"(Cold Cuts)" by Bertrand Blier (a
cameo only- film with very black humor)-1979
There are others.
In non-crime films I could suggest the following,
as outstanding films with Serrault at his best:
"Les enfants du marais" by Jean Becker (son of
the famed Jacques)-1999
"Le libertin" (very badly received by critics- a
mistake IMO, and Serrault is brilliant as a "iconoclastic
cardinal")
"Le bonheur est dans le pré” by Etienne Chatillez
(poetic and ironic comedy)
His greatest hit on film was « La cage aux folles
»(1978) a pitiful comedy "de boulevard" he played on stage in
Paris first. This encouraged his bad comedian side to become
more "cabotin" (= a ham; sorry, IIRC no good English
equivalent to this very negative word applied to an actor)
when he was not controlled by a strong director.
I personally will not forgive his participation
to this massacre a Jean-Luc Miesch did to a novel with Nestor
Burma, a deplorable and poor derision of the character and
the novel. A pretentious lemon, and Serrault not only
accepted but pushed the whole thing to mediocrity.A real
shame.
To avoid if you come across: "Nestor Bruma,
detective de choc" -1982.
I prefer to remember his best
contributions…
E.Borgers
POLAR NOIR
http://www.geocities.com/polarnoir
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