Working in the garden helped him, an extremely nervous person, to accept the variability of the world around him. Photo: ru.pinterest.com
Perhaps now the name Louis de Funes is not familiar to many – not everyone loves old French cinema. But the magical name Fantomas is another matter. This is a world value. A man who takes on any appearance, a villain, inventive and ruthless… And all this splendor of dark forces played by the handsome Jean Marais is opposed by the ridiculous little inspector from Juve – Louis de Funes, a funny and fussy guy, a walking caricature.
HISTORIC RETREAT
The story of Fantomas dates back to 1911, when two writers, Marcel Allen and Pierre Souvestre, wrote something so “tabloid” that “great French literature” turned around and pretended that such a phenomenon simply did not exist. But in the year before World War I, five (!) silent films were shot.
The arrival of talkies didn’t stop the craze: France clung firmly to its supervillain. And then director André Hunebel made a bold decision: we’re making a comedy!
QUIET ABUSE
For Louis de Funès, who became recognizable late, the role of the Juve inspector became a springboard. Jean Marais even took offense at it: he always felt that he was being pushed aside. Although Mare played two roles at once: Fantômas and the journalist Fandor.
The director did not want to risk Jean Marais and did not allow him any imprudence. Only stuntmen. But de Funes was initially given free rein: Yunebel did not consider him a superstar, so the 50-year-old actor was allowed to gallop, jump and fall without any stunt replacements in the frame. But in the second film, “Fantômas Raged,” Yunebel had to change his mind. De Funes spectacularly but unsuccessfully fell out of the plane. He landed on rose bushes and ended up in the hospital, which hampered the filming process. They could not do it without de Funes.
It is not known what special thing happened to the actor in rose bushes, but, having become rich after Fantômas, he fell in love with these flowers so much that he took a gardening course, bought a 17th-century castle with a park near Nantes and grew roses, thereby distracting himself from the whole world. They say that he was even ordered to develop a new variety. But this is just a legend: the Louis de Funes rose was bred by professionals in a nursery where the actor often visited. The variety “blooms all summer with elegant bright orange flowers and a delicate aroma.” These roses do not like prolonged rain, but they smell of honey and lavender.
Galarian Fufu
He was born in 1914 in the Parisian suburb of Courbevoie to a family of Spanish immigrants. Dad was a diamond cutter, got involved in a dark affair, faked suicide and disappeared, so that only his beautiful surname remained. Luis de Funes de Galarza! The impressive pomp of the name, which did not at all match his appearance. No wonder everyone called him Fufu. Louis parodied those around him in such a way, making such faces while playing the piano, that De Galarza definitely did not sound like him. And his first part-time jobs also did not coincide in some way with Galarza’s: either he set off firecrackers in a photo studio, or he threw pins in a sewing workshop. He began to earn his first money as a jazz pianist. In the most depraved area near Place Pigalle.
At the age of 22, he got married for the first time “on the fly”. His son Daniel was born. My wife left for someone else after 6 years. Meetings with his son were rare, especially towards the end of the actor’s life.
The second wife, Jeanne de Maupassant (related to the writer or not), was a secretary at the music school where De Funes taught music theory during the war. She bore him two sons: Patrick and Olivier. One became a pilot, the other a doctor, but neither became an actor. This annoyed my father a lot. However, in general it was difficult not to annoy my father.
His wife Zhanna gave him two children.
Photo: GLOBAL LOOK PRESS.
STOP THE THIEF
De Funes was stingy and afraid of everything. He was especially afraid of being robbed. He locked everything that could be locked behind him and carried a bunch of keys to all the drawers and doors in the first small apartments. When prosperity came to the house and the living space increased, there were already thirty keys hanging on the bunch.
At the entrance he set traps for thieves, booby traps and empty bottles. Curiously, he was robbed twice even then, which did not help to cure his paranoia.
I was suspicious of everyone. I took sedatives and set three alarms so as not to fall asleep during filming. Even if 10 years before the arrival of at least some fame, filming was done in episodes. 10 years! And only in 1958 did I get a role in the film “Not caught, not a thief.” This is where everything started to get complicated.
We say “French comedy” and the first thing we remember is this face. Photo: Still from the film “Le gendarme de Saint-Tropez”
THE LAST WORDS OF A GENDARME
He was already 44 years old and still had 24 years left to live: “Razinya”, “The Grand Promenade”, the Fantômas trilogy itself, “The Gendarme of Saint-Tropez” (which, like “Fantômas”, turns 60 this year), “Cabbage Soup”, “Frozen” and many others. It is symbolic that here too he plays a leading role: in The Miser, the 1980 film adaptation of Molière’s play, directed by De Funes himself.
He played “The Stingy” against the backdrop of two heart attacks. The worn-out heart could not stand it, and the joy was roses, fishing with the gardener Victor and Zhanna. Another passion arose behind the scenes: Masha Beranger, with whom the actor dated for 13 years. A dog named Tsar ran around the garden. There were cats. The last film about Inspector Cruchot was shot: “The Gendarme and the Gendarmes”, on the set of which director Gerard Giraud, an old friend, died. De Funes then said that he too would soon be on his way.
And so it was. On the morning of January 27, 1983, he went to see his Zhanna and said to her: “I miss being alone in my room…” Then there was silence.
PS Jeanne lived to be 101, her children wrote memoirs and the Gaumont film company receives 500 million euros a year from television screenings of films in which De Funès is involved. The miserly and distrustful actor did not like rental contracts and preferred to collect the money immediately. They will cheat you!
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