I'm my grandfather's fool
In fact, Pierre Richard has a different name. This is only part of the name, but in full it sounds like this: Pierre Richard Maurice Charles Leopold Defay. His grandfather Defe owned a textile factory and a large castle with an adjacent park - he came from the old bourgeoisie, merged with the aristocracy, and graduated from the Ecole Polytechnique, the French equivalent of Harvard. The second grandfather, Argimiro, was an Italian immigrant who in his youth carried rails on his back: he started a construction business with the coppers he had accumulated over the years. The Italian Argimiro became rich and bought a small castle, but at the same time remained a commoner.
Pierre Richard grew up between two worlds: in one, the driver took him to school in a Rolls-Royce and took off his cap, throwing open the car door; in the second, the whole family ate spaghetti poured with melted sausage fat from the same dish. Richard's father, a young man from the Defe family, abandoned his mother (later he threw away the entire family fortune), so the childhood of the future Monsieur Perrin was not cloudless. It was especially difficult for him in closed boarding houses: there the boy was mercilessly beaten, and in order to get rid of his offenders, he learned to make them laugh. He didn’t like to study and had no intention of doing it: so that grandfather Defe would leave him behind, the boy talentedly played the fool. This is how the mask was born, which later brought him fame. A big blow for the boy was the visit of teachers from his Catholic boarding school, abbots who had seen and not so cunning, who visited his grandfather. To his great amazement, Grandfather Defe learned that his grandson had a sharp mind. He still had to study, he became a bachelor, but Pierre Richard still trampled on the hopes of his aristocratic relatives.
Actor, criminal, heartthrob: 5 best roles of Pierre Richard
“The Toy” (Le jouet, 1976, dir. Francis Weber)
The story of a man who unexpectedly literally became a living toy for the spoiled son of an influential boss. The film contains a clear social subtext criticizing the consumerist lifestyle, but we remember it primarily for the charming performance of Pierre Richard. His openness and sincerity towards his new owner, and then his friend, captivate the viewer.
Thanks to the actor’s extraordinary comic talent, journalist Francois became a textbook character in cinema, from whom many roles were copied - see even our Russian “Gift with Character”.
“The Umbrella Prick” (Le coup du parapluie, 1980, directed by Gerard Oury)
A hilarious parody of James Bond films and Italian crime films of the 70s at the same time, imbued with black humor. Pierre Richard plays a hapless actor who, having agreed to play the role of a killer in the production, accidentally becomes a member of the mafia and gets involved in a criminal story.
Richard's ability to walk the line between outright mockery of the genre and drama is admirable. There is a real killer on the heels of his hero, and the tension in the frame periodically is no worse than in the films of Alfred Hitchcock - all because of the amazing charm of the funny fool.
“The Unlucky Ones” (La chèvre, 1981, dir. Francis Weber)
The duet of Weber and Richard presented the audience with a number of wonderful comedies. Pierre was regularly accompanied by Gerard Depardieu at the height of his career. So, in “Unlucky”, this couple plays out a strange alliance of a professional detective and a loser accountant, whose “talent” for getting into unfortunate situations should lead to the trail of a kidnapped girl, who is also unlucky.
Richard, who plays the second character, amuses the viewer with his neurotic perfectionism and hilarious, but leading to nothing good, attempts to take the investigation into his own hands.
“The Runaways” (Les fugitifs, 1986, dir. Francis Weber)
And another film from the Richard-Depardieu-Weber trio, and again a parody of crime films. Unemployed Francois Pignon (Richard) tries to organize an armed bank robbery. Of course, everything does not go according to plan: the police surround him from all sides, and the only thing that comes to the inexperienced criminal’s mind is to take a hostage. He turns out to be ex-bandit Jean (Depardieu), who was released after “serving time” and was going to give up his criminal past forever.
One can once again be surprised at how Richard manages to fill even a not very sympathetic role with charm and humanity. Even criminals in his performances gain a chance to be understood by the viewer - Pignon is driven not by the thirst for profit, but by concern for his daughter.
“1001 recipes for a chef in love” (Shekvarebuli kulinaris ataserti retsepti, 1996, dir. Nana Dzhoradze)
Pierre Richard has always been unusually close in spirit to the audience of the CIS countries - it is not surprising that the Georgian director Nana Dzhoradze lured him into her international project with the participation of a scattering of film stars (from Alexander Rodnyansky as a producer to composer Goran Bregovic).
With amazing warmth, Richard plays the role of a chef-traveler who had a great time in his youth, who accidentally ends up in distant Georgia, where he finds a lot of adventures and his last love. This adventurous comedy proves that the actor's talent is limitless - he is good both as a comedic actor and as an elderly heartthrob.
How Richard was mistaken for an exhibitionist
He walked towards fame slowly, rising to it from the very bottom of his profession - from cabarets, theater-cafes, and from the stages of music halls. Instead of going to university, Richard took drama courses, after which he began working at the Jean Vilar Theater - the National People's Theater was an extremely serious cultural institution, a real temple of Melpomene, but he did not succeed there.
He did not get big roles from Vilar, but he wanted to be the first actor in a serious classical repertoire. Subsequently, an unfulfilled youthful desire changed his fate, but so far everything was leading Pierre Richard in the other direction - where money and fame awaited him. Flexible and strong, a magnificent dancer (he was destined for a ballet career), Richard was in many ways like his Perrin - he was the same bungler and at times he also turned out to be ridiculous. Having received the role of a soldier in Macbeth, he died beautifully - he bent over and fell into convulsions so that he was applauded. And then he fell asleep on stage and slept through the change of scenery - in the next scene, the murdered soldier ended up in Lady Macbeth's bedroom, the audience discovered him due to his heavy snoring. The worst thing was that Richard could not be moved.
Later, at the time of success, rising to his floor in the hotel, Richard saw a man in only shorts. Deciding that there was a swimming pool on the floor, he left the room in swimming trunks and with a towel over his shoulder - that’s when he was grabbed. Security was looking for an exhibitionist walking around the floors; Richard was mistaken for his accomplice.
At the same time, Richard remained a tenacious and tenacious business man; apparently, the genes of both grandfathers were formed. He controlled timing and film consumption better than before; later he founded his own film company. And at the same time he could spill tomato sauce on the suit of Gerard Depardieu, who was sitting next to him at the banquet, who was not expecting such a dirty trick - this is where their long-term friendship began.
Pierre Richard had one more important thing in common with Perrin. This idiot had phenomenal luck with women. Richard told reporters that bed exercises are the best way to maintain vigor and physical strength. He married Grand Opera ballerina Danielle Minazzoli in 1970, then he was 36. She bore him two sons, and after 12 years they separated peacefully. After that, Richard lived with the actress Muriel Dubrule, then with the Moroccan Aisha, who was 34 years younger than him. The second wife, Brazilian Seoul Lacerda, is 30 years younger than Richard. Before meeting him, she had not watched European cinema and had no idea who was courting her. But that didn't stop anything.
Cinema
He started acting in films at the age of 33. His first film was Blessed Alexander. And in 1972, after his role in the film “The Tall Blonde in a Black Shoe,” the actor achieved incredible success. Pierre immediately acquired the role of a comedian, and the audience began to perceive him as a comedian.
Pierre calls the film “Toy” his favorite film.
"It's my favorite movie. I have personal reasons for loving this film. It resonates strongly with my life as a child. I was the child of a very rich man. But I had nothing. I really missed attention. And in this film the relationship between son and father is very clearly visible. No toy can replace the relationship between parents and children. And the second storyline is also realistic. It’s about how power can prevent a person from living, how it can prevent a person from being real and worthy,” says the actor.
Richard worked with such famous French directors as Claude Zidi, Francis Weber, Gerard Oury. In total, Richard played in almost 80 films, including the melodrama “Paper Souls” (2013) and the television film “Agafya” based on Chekhov’s stories (2015). In the late 1980s he founded the film company Fideline Films.
Autumn of Perrin
How wonderful is the fate of an accomplished person who may not think that he needs to appear successful! Richard lived as he wanted - not in an apartment, but on a barge moored to the Seine embankment. After his Porsche was stolen (apparently, his Perrin genes came into play again), he drove an old Citroen. I rode along country roads on a motorcycle that was rattling from antiquity. He wore clothes bought in time immemorial.
Richard was a nonconformist and did not want to follow the beaten path, repeat the path of de Funès, who played the same roles until he tightly merged with his mask. He was looking for something new - sometimes it was followed by luck, sometimes everything was different. Francis Weber's films "Toy", "Unlucky", "Dads", "Runaways" brought him new success (but it was not always a box office success). Then Weber went to Hollywood, and Richard was left without his director. He still filmed a lot, sometimes several times a year, was looking for something new, disappointing the audience who loved Perrin, and the status of a “star” of the first magnitude slowly but surely eluded him. Well, it doesn’t matter - Pierre Richard returned to the theater stage and played a lot. In 1996, he starred in Georgia in Nana Dzhoradze’s film “A Thousand and One Recipes for a Cook in Love.” Richard received the prize for best actor at the festival in Karlovy Vary, but this did not return his previous success.
The quiet life that comes after great fame can also be interesting. Pierre Richard plays in the theater for his own pleasure and acts in films when he wants, and does a lot with the estate and vines. He fights downy mildew and phylloxera - and has no regrets.
Love for Russia
He first came to Moscow in 1993 to participate in the French film festival. Subsequently, he visited Russia several times and acted in Russian directors (8-episode film “Parisians”, 2005, directed by Stas Egerev, Sergey Polyansky; “Toy Seller”, 2012, directed by Yuri Vasiliev).
Russian journalists at the press conference did not fail to ask why Pierre Richard is so attached to our country.
“And you put yourself in my place. In all the cities of Russia, wherever I go, I am received very well. It seems to me that I know Russia more than some Russians. I see that they know me here. And I am very attached to this country. How can I not love a people who respects and values me so much? That’s why I come here so often,” said the artist.
Pierre Richard is the winner of a number of awards, including France's main film award, the Cesar, for his contribution to cinema. He is also the author of the memoirs Like a Fish Out of Water and I Know Nothing, But I'll Tell You Everything.
