Even several years after his death which had marked the entire French cultural world, Jean-Paul Belmondo remains an example of a popular actor par excellence. Jean Dujardin recently paid tribute to the actor, on the occasion of the second anniversary of his death. The aura of this legend of the seventh art is perpetuated through the younger generation, like his grandson Victor Belmondo, also an actor, seen in several films in recent years. Granddaughter of “Bébel”, Annabelle Belmondo announced in mid-July that she was pregnant with her first child. Model and actress, she sometimes posts tender photos of her childhood with the man who surely inspired her career.
The Professional, a thriller with immense popular success
The reputation of Jean-Paul Belmondo is also measured by the number and regularity of rebroadcasts of his films, often passed down to posterity. As The ace of aces (1982), a great classic on the set of which the actor narrowly avoided a tragic accident. Or Cops and robbers (1978), whose shots were very particular to him. At the start of his career, the actor believed that Jean-Luc Godard was flirting with him on the set ofBreathless (1960), flagship work of the New Wave. Among Belmondo’s classics, fans often cite The professional, very popular thriller when it was released in theaters in October 1981 (5.2 million spectators), broadcast this Monday, September 18, 2023 at 9:10 p.m. on France 3. The Lautner-Belmondo-Audiard trio reunites for this film with tasty dialogues, which follows a secret agent (Bébel), betrayed by his superiors, who decides to carry out his mission: assassinate an African dictator.
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What scene from Professional posed a problem for Jean-Paul Belmondo?
In 1981, Jean-Paul Belmondo was at the height of his popularity: for around ten years, he had been making thrillers, comedies and adventure films, almost every time reaching the top of the box office. That year, he toured The professional. This adaptation of Death of an animal with fragile skin, a novel by the British Patrick Alexander, published in the Série noire collection, marks a turning point in the actor’s career. The shots were not easy. A real criminal has slipped into this fictional story of banditry. Indeed, in the film which deceived viewers with a huge detail, a real gangster appears, accomplice of a famous robber! In addition, Belmondo had difficulty filming one sequence in particular, that of the kiss with his partner Cyrielle Clair. In 2021, the actress returned to the sequence in the show Balance your post by Cyril Hanouna in homage to Bébel. “We had to try again several times. Not because he wanted to take advantage of the situation, but because we were very bad. I was completely intimidated and he, paradoxically, I found that there was a lot of modesty in him, he was extremely delicate but a little too delicate. He was very gentlemanly with me, which meant that we maintained a beautiful friendship.“.
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