Louis de Funès

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Louis de Funès filming Louis' close encounter with the aliens (1978)
Former tombstone of Louis de Funès

Louis Germain David de Funès de Galarza [ fyˈnɛs ] (born July 31, 1914 in Courbevoie , † January 27, 1983 in Nantes ) was a French actor , comedian , director and screenwriter of Spanish descent. In his films he varied the role of the patriarch and choleric with great success , who fails because of the momentum of the developments he has set in motion.

Life

Louis de Funès was the son of Spanish immigrants. His parents, Léonor Soto Reguera (1879–1957) and Carlos Luis de Funès de Galarza (1871–1934), belonged to the Seville nobility and had emigrated from Seville to France in 1904. After the birth of Louis and his siblings, the father, who was not allowed to practice the profession of lawyer in France, tried to establish himself as a diamond dealer in Venezuela . He left his family in France but was unlucky. Sick of tuberculosis , he first returned to Courbevoie in 1934; in the same year he died in Malaga . Louis de Funès spent his childhood in Villiers-sur-Marne . From the age of five he received piano lessons from his mother.

Training and first roles

At nine years old, Louis de Funès was sent to boarding school in Coulommiers by his parents because they were concerned about the discipline of their son, who was mainly interested in sports.

In 1932, his parents registered him at the École Technique de Photographie et de Cinéma , where he chose the cinema department. After a prank with firecrackers , he was expelled from school. In 1933 he came into contact with the world of film when he was an extra in Maurice Tourneurs Les deux orphelines . He trained as a photographer and became a student of the film director Germaine Dulac . Various activities as a draftsman, decorator and accountant followed.

He also performed as a jazz pianist in cabarets in the Paris red light district Pigalle . After he married Germaine Louise Elodie Carroyer in 1936, he was able to support his family. He played four-handed jazz with Eddie Barclay . His second wife once said that she fell in love with him because he “played jazz like a god”. During the Second World War , de Funès was not drafted into the army, but made some appearances in military camps. From 1941 he took acting lessons. In 1942 he enrolled at the Cours Simon , a long-established and well-known training center for comedians. He received smaller theater roles and after the war in 1945 also film roles.

He was employed as an actor for two decades without making a breakthrough. He acted in over 40 films in small, supporting and extras roles. B. in the Sacha Guitry classic Das Scheusal (1951) as well as in the Fernandel films On Certain Nights (1951) and The Mutton with the 5 Legs (1954). In 1956 he was given an important supporting role alongside Jean Gabin in the hit comedy Two Men, a Pig and the Night of Paris , which is set in Paris at the time of the German occupation. His success in this film earned him his first leading roles in 1957/58, in Don't you want to be my murderer? , Fish or meat and when Louis goes on a trip .

In the early 1960s, de Funès made his breakthrough in the theater with the comedy Oscar . In the main role of the businessman Barnier, who tyrannizes his family with manic energy, he perfected the type of the grimacing choleric . He presented a ludicrously exaggerated facial expression and drew from a large repertoire of grotesque gestures. The characterization of Barnier was trend-setting for the well-known later film character of the comedian. In 1963, she first appeared in the cinema with squeak ... squeak ... who's drilling for oil? ab, a theater-based ensemble comedy in which de Funès was clearly the focus.

Breakthrough as a movie star

Louis de Funès in 1978 on the set of Louis' close encounter with the aliens

In the summer of 1964, Louis de Funès made three films in just four months that became box office hit: The Gendarme of Saint Tropez (as leading actor), Fantomas (as co-star of Jean Marais ) and Louis the Schlitzohr (as co-star of Bourvil ) - a unique moment in the history of French film de Funes' term as France's Komiker- Star . No one initiated.

In The Gendarme of Saint Tropez , he played the lead role of the gendarme Ludovic Cruchot, who has to deal with a pubescent daughter and naughty nudists . De Funès played the popular role of this choleric, manipulative and power-hungry law enforcement officer in six films until his death. The other actors in the series included Michel Galabru as Cruchot's superior Gerber, Claude Gensac as Cruchot's wife Josépha, a rather sad quartet of subordinate gendarmes and France Rumilly as a nun in a speed frenzy . All films were directed by Jean Girault .

In the popular crime comedy Fantomas he took on the role of Commissioner Juve. This film was actually tailored to its main actor Marais, but was dominated by de Funès, who tried with dogged ambition, but unsuccessfully, to arrest the eponymous super criminal. In the sequel Fantomas versus Interpol (1965) the comedian was already an equal lead actor, while the third part Fantomas Threatened the World (1966) became a typical De Funès vehicle. André Hunebelle directed all of the films .

With the tumultuous crook comedy Louis, the rascal , which brought almost twelve million viewers to the cinemas in France, Louis de Funès finally established himself as a superstar in 1965. The film was directed by actor Gérard Oury , who was also involved in the script, and contains several encounters between de Funès and Bourvil. A little later, the two comedians stood in front of the camera together with Terry-Thomas for Oury's lavishly produced farce Die große Sause (1966): As an orchestra conductor, de Funès helps the crew of an aircraft that flew over German-occupied Paris during World War II is shot down. With seventeen million viewers, the comedy long held the record as the most successful French film ever. In the early 1970s, The Stupid Pranks of the Rich and The Adventures of Rabbi Jacob were further cash- rich collaborations between Oury and de Funès.

After his breakthrough, de Funès made two to three films a year between 1966 and 1971, including Oscar (1967), the adaptation of his stage success. He later returned to the theater to play the role again with great success. Also Hash me, I'm the killer (1971), a remake of the film The Gazebo with Glenn Ford , can deny its origin hardly off the stage and was also an ideal vehicle for de Funes.

The most popular film comedian in Europe

From the mid-1960s, de Funès was France's most popular film comedian, replacing stars like Fernandel and Bourvil . He starred in over 140 films. The type of choleric petty bourgeoisie, who cuddles up to the authorities but extensively tyrannizes his subordinates, looked grotesquely realistic and was well received by the audience. Since de Funès appeared again and again as a value-conservative and state-supporting subject, he exposed precisely these norms to ridicule. The private citizen de Funès was politically rather conservative.

Most of De Funès' comedies were staged by veterans like Jean Girault or Édouard Molinaro . Regardless of the plot, the films were always tailored to de Funès in the lead role. Other actors are often just cues or decorative accessories. The actor himself, who had waited decades for his breakthrough, saw himself as a popular folk comedian and said: “I'm only interested in films with more than 500,000 viewers.” A project with Claude Chabrol never came off.

Claude Gensac was the comedian's most famous film partner. She mostly played his wife, in four of the six gendarme films as well as in Oscar , Baldwin, the holiday shock , Uncle Paul, the big plum and Camouflage - hash me, I'm the murderer . She played the role of the elderly secretary in breast or club , in Louis, the miser a matchmaker, and in Louis and his extraterrestrial cabbages his confused neighbor.

In the second half of the 1960s, de Funès also became popular in other European countries and was particularly popular in Germany until his death. This is also thanks to his longtime voice actor Gerd Martienzen , who congenially translated de Funès' verbal hysteria into German. Many of the comedies were marketed several times in Germany, with specially invented titles and role names (Louis, Oscar or Balduin). The creative and sometimes absurd German dubbing was also typical of this time .

The last few years

De Funès bought Clermont Castle in 1967

After 1971, the comedian reduced his film work considerably for health reasons. In 1973 he made his most demanding film, The Adventures of Rabbi Jacob , which, with 7.3 million viewers in France alone, also became his third most successful: As a racist manufacturer, he is caught up in secret service intrigues and has to identify one in order to save his life Rabbis accept what leads to a surprising change in character. The film shows de Funès, who is almost 60 years old, in a physically demanding role (for example, he falls into a huge vat of chewing gum).

On March 20, 1974, de Funès suffered his first heart attack after 198 performances of the play Valse des Toréadors by Jean Anouilh . It was the last piece he played in the theater. After apparently recovering, he suffered a second heart attack eight days later. The shooting of the film Le Crocodile , in which he was supposed to play a dictator whose family is dancing on the nose, has been canceled. De Funès felt sick and written off by everyone, also because insurance companies no longer wanted to be responsible for him during a film shoot.

The producer Christian Fechner , who absolutely wanted to make a film with him, finally gave him strength and courage to live again. Fechner took the risk of shooting the comedy Brust oder Keule with him with only two weeks of insurance . In 1976, de Funès returned to the screen in the role of the dreaded restaurant critic Duchemin, who had lost significant weight after his illness. A cardiologist was always present during filming to be on the safe side , and it was ensured that de Funès was given a quieter role - without his usual tantrums, but with plenty of opportunity to use his unique facial expressions and gestures. Since Pierre Richard, whom de Funès held in high esteem , was not available for the role of his film son, it was taken over by Coluche , who was a few years away from his breakthrough as a star comedian.

From the late 1970s, de Funès was no longer the sole king of French comedy films. The films by Pierre Richard (especially in the team with Gérard Depardieu ) and Coluche (from 1980) attracted a similar number of viewers to the cinemas, sometimes even more. Of the five comedies that de Funès shot after breast or club , the two most commercially successful films, in which he revived his gendarme after almost ten years, were significant. His Molière adaptation Louis, the Miser , for which he co-directed for the first and only time, was a box office flop in comparison.

Private

As a private citizen, Louis de Funès, called Fufu by his fans and friends , was considered quiet and reserved, he loved nature and was a passionate rose lover.

De Funès was married from 1936 to 1942 with Germaine Louise Élodie Carroyer (1915-2011), with whom he had a son (Daniel, 1937-2017). From 1943 until his death he was married to Jeanne-Augustine Barthélémy de Maupassant (1914-2015), a great niece of Guy de Maupassant . With her he had two children: Patrick (* 1944) and Olivier (* 1949); the latter also became an actor and starred in some of his father's films.

The grave of Louis de Funès and his wife Jeanne-Augustine de Funès Barthélémy in Le Cellier, not far from Clermont Castle

In 1967, De Funès bought the 30-room family castle of the de Maupassants, the Clermont Castle near Le Cellier in the Loire-Atlantique department , and moved there with his family.

In 1983 Louis de Funès died at the age of 68 as a result of another heart attack in a hospital in Nantes . He was buried not far from the Clermont Castle in Le Cellier. After de Funès' death, the heirs sold the castle. Between April 2014 and October 2016, the property housed luxury apartments and a Louis de Funès museum.

Filmography (selection)

German voice actors

Louis de Funès was mainly dubbed for the German audience by Gerd Martienzen , Peter Schiff and Klaus Miedel . Other voice actors were Anton Reimer , Willi Narloch , Fred Mahr , Werner Stock , Hugo Schrader , Werner Lieven , Alfred Balthoff , Alfred Bohl , Klaus Glowalla , Horst Kempe , Manfred Lichtenfeld , Kurt Schmidtchen , Bert Brunn and Fred Maire . Michael Pan can be heard in re- dubbing (dubbing unabridged film versions and first dubbing generally unknown films) .

An overview of all German Louis de Funes voice actors and movies contains the German synchronous index .

Funès as a narrator and musician

Louis de Funès on a Parisian graffito

In Germany, de Funès' settings and radio plays on vinyl records are little known. From the 1960s onwards, he regularly read classical works for publication on record. Some of these recordings were released as a 7 ″ single and as an LP under the title Louis de Funès joue avec les classiques . The majority of the publications under his name, however, are film music for his films, which were often by Raymond Lefèvre and sometimes by Vladimir Cosma or Georges Delerue .

De Funès sang only four times himself; these recordings can be heard in the films Balduin, the dry swimmer and Everything dances to my tune as well as in the play La gross valse . His piano skills come in, wo n't you be my murderer? in which he played a life-weary musician.

Discography (selection)

  • 7 ″ Louis de Funès joue avec les classiques 1 La Fontaine, La Bruyere (1964 Disques Vogue EPL 8295)
  • 7 ″ Louis de Funès joue avec les classiques 2 La Fontaine, Racine (1964 Disques Vogue EPL 8260)
  • 7 ″ Louis de Funès joue avec les classiques 3 La Fontaine, Boileau (1964 Disques Vogue EPL 8261)
  • 7 ″ Louis de Funès joue avec les classiques 4 La Fontaine, Moliere, Voltaire (1964 Disques Vogue EPL 8262)
  • 7 ″ Les fourberies de Scapin (Molière) (Disques Vogue EPL 8641)
  • 12 ″ Louis de Funès joue avec les classiques (Disques Vogue LD 65430)
  • 12 ″ Le boeuf et l'ane de la crèche: De Funès reads the role of the donkey in Jules Supervielle's Christmas story.
  • 12 ″ Pour le mercredi de vos enfants: Double LP from 1974 with fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm and fables by La Fontaine.
  • 12 ″ L'Avare: Molieres The Miser was released as a radio play in a 3-LP box.
  • 12 ″ Louis de Funès raconte Les Aristochats: Audio book published in 1982 with 16 pages.

Trivia

  • The choleric chef “Skinner” in the Disney film Ratatouille is based on Louis de Funès.
  • In the book The one-armed bandit from the Lucky Luke comic series , the villain has the looks, facial expressions and gestures of de Funès.
  • In episode 23 ("The Hormones") of the animated series Once Upon a Time ... Life from 1986, the appearance and behavior of de Funès from Louis, the miser, were adopted for the character of the "iodine guard" of the thyroid gland .
  • From 2007 to 2012, the radio station WDR 2 ran the comedy series Sarko de Funès every Saturday , in which the then French President Nicolas Sarkozy was parodied, but with the typically excited speech of Louis de Funès, spoken by René Steinberg .
  • In 2008 the famous dialogue change “No!” - “Yes!” - “Oooh!” Between de Funès and Bernard Blier from Hasch mich, I am the murderer, was imitated for a radio commercial for Toyota .
  • In the 2015 animated film Pourquoi j'ai pas mangé mon père by Jamel Debbouze , the character of "Vladimir" is modeled on Louis de Funès, both visually and externally.

museum

On April 20, 2014, a new museum (Musée de Louis) was opened in his honor in the orangery of Clermont Castle . Charles Duringer and his wife Roselyne had already opened a museum in Le Cellier in the summer of 2013 because the old one had become too small due to the increasing number of visitors. The previous museum was closed in 2016.

On July 31, 2019, the museum reopened as Musée Louis de Funès in the French port city of St. Raphaël on the Côte d'Azur .

Awards

The Meilland rose- growing dynasty honored the actor with the ocher-orange, strongly scented hybrid tea Louis de Funès
  • 1973: Knight of the French Legion of Honor
  • 1980: Honorary César (the “French Oscar”) for his life's work
  • 1984: The hybrid tea "Rose de Louis de Funès" developed by Marie-Louise Meilland was named after him
  • 1998: The French Post issued the “Louis de Funès” stamp in his honor

literature

Web links

Commons : Louis de Funès  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Galarza Name Meaning, Family History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms. Retrieved April 9, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Patrick and Olivier de Funès: Louis de Funès - the cross head . P. 20 ff.
  3. ↑ On November 8th 2013 at 7:00 am: Villiers n'a pas oublié de Funès. November 8, 2013, accessed on August 5, 2020 (Fri-FR).
  4. ↑ AlloCine: Louis de Funès. Retrieved August 5, 2020 (French).
  5. ^ Anne Audigier: Les compagnons pianistes . Editions L'Harmattan, 2010, p. 14 ff.
  6. ↑ Louis de Funes - Films Feature Films Feature Films Overview. Retrieved April 10, 2020 .
  7. ↑ LOUIS DE FUNES. Retrieved August 5, 2020 .
  8. ↑ Louis de Funes Museum closed at Chateau Clermont. In: Burgerbe.de. July 19, 2014, accessed on April 9, 2020 (German).
  9. ↑ German dubbing file dubbing actors of all German Louis de Funès films
  10. ^ Louis de Funès Museum at Clermont Castle closed . burgerbe.de
  11. ↑ Le musée Louis de Funès ouvrira à Saint-Raphaël in 2019 . fr.news.yahoo.com
  12. ^ Musée Louis de Funès: Press kit for the opening. Musée Louis de Funès, July 31, 2019, accessed January 1, 2020 .
  13. ↑ Stamp "Louis de Funes" on Whoswho.de (accessed on 27 April 2011)
personal data
SURNAME Funès, Louis de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Funès de Galarza, Louis Germain David de (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French actor and comedian
DATE OF BIRTH July 31, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Courbevoie
DATE OF DEATH January 27, 1983
Place of death Nantes