“He continued to cry”: this scene which totally upset Fernandel on a film set

It is a new documentary that the Comédie + channel offers this Thursday, May 4, 2023. From 9 p.m., viewers will be able to discover Fernandel, the man with a smile, a program of just over an hour rich in archives. It is moreover Fernandel’s grandson, Vincent Fernandel, who does the voiceover while several personalities, such as Chantal Ladesou or Titoff, also testify in front of the cameras. We thus discover the shock of the actor discovering himself for the first time on the screen, in a film by Sacha Guitry.

Fernandel facing Jacqueline Pagnol in Naïs

But this documentary is also an opportunity to return to the collaborations of Henriette’s husband and director Marcel Pagnol, with whom he will remain at odds for 10 years. Among them, we can cite Angela, The Well Digger’s Daughter, Topaz but also Naïs, which included in its cast a certain Jacqueline Bouvier, who died in 2016… also known as Jacqueline Pagnol, since she was the director’s wife! In Naïs, the actress who had stopped dead in her career at the age of 34 had experienced a very strong moment in front of Fernandel, who owed her stage name to her greatest love story. And it is Nicolas Pagnol, his grandson, who tells it.

“For her, this scene was the greatest he had ever performed.“

In front of Pagnol’s cameras, Fernandel, who will receive astonishing letters following the success of Don Camillo, recites what has been nicknamed “the hunchback’s tirade”, a character played by him then in the middle of a monologue. “It’s my grandmother Jacqueline who plays this pretty girl who gets pregnant. She told me a lot about this sceneremembers Nicolas Pagnol. She said to me: ‘I saw Fernandel’s genius. That is to say, after the scene, he continued to cry! During, he looked at me and I started crying myself.’ He wasn’t playing, she said.And to add:He really lived what he interpreted. And actually felt what he was performing. For her, this scene was the greatest he had ever performed..” And the opportunity for the public to discover a more dramatic facet of his acting, he who was above all a regular in comedies.

Find the documentary Fernandel, the man with a smile on Comedy + and MyCanal.