While emancipating from the Splendid troupe, Michel Blanc in 1981 played the main role in “Come home, I live with a girlfriend”, Guy, a variation of his cult character Jean-Claude Dusse. A decisive turning point in the actor’s career.
Michel Blanc takes control
At the end of the 1970s, Michel Blanc already had more than twenty credits to his credit on the big screen, but one character stuck with him: Jean-Claude Dusse. A cult character, perhaps the most iconic of the Splendid troupe with his memorable adventures in The Bronzed et Les Bronzés go skiing.
But if Michel Blanc likes his character and the success of the first film, released in 1978, delights him, he also assumes, as he expressed it in an interview given to Premièrewant to evolve:
I thought it was vulgar to write a sequel to tanned. So I did not participate in what will turn out to be the better of the two films! (laughs) And, on the set, the atmosphere was not so good between us, as if something had broken. They were obviously a little angry with me and logically moreover to have a little to have broken the cohesion of the group. The friends could have believed that I had taken the big head.
Les Bronzés go skiing, in which he appears but which he did not co-write with the rest of the Splendid, therefore marks a step in the professional relationship with his partners and friends. The film was released in 1979 and Michel Blanc, essentially confined to secondary roles until then, already saw further, and bigger.
The turning point film
You have to reinvent yourself without denying yourself, and Michel Blanc changes the dimension of this register with a form of continuitymeeting Patrice Leconte, director of the two films The Bronzedpour Come to my house, I live with a friend. A film that he co-wrote with the director and for which he writes the dialogues, adapting the play created by Luis Rego, unforgettable Bobo in The Bronzed. From Splendid, we also find Anemone in a central role, Bruno Moynot and Marie-Anne Chazel in secondary appearances.
Michel Blanc shares the top billing of this comedy with Bernard Giraudeau, and their duo convinces the public. Come to my house, I live with a girlfriend is a successattracting more than 2,8 millions spectators in the halls. The character is a successful variation of Jean-Claude Dusse, but the main difference is that the actor holds this time the main role and gets noticed. He will then continue. The same year, Michel Blanc also played the leading role of My wife’s name is come backanother production by Patrice Leconte, of which he is also co-screenwriter.
Only lending his voice in Le Père Noël est une ordure in 1982, he reunited with the Splendid troupe in a secondary role for Grandpa resists in 1983. As in previous years, the duo Patrice Leconte – Michel Blanc delivers its film Move along, there’s nothing to see, the actor not participating this time in the scenario. On the director’s recommendation, Michel Blanc then moved on to directing in 1984 with Walk in the shadewhich he co-wrote and in which he co-starred with Gérard Lanvin.
Towards the Cannes consecration
Walk in the shade was a great success, finishing at the top of the French box office in 1984 with 6,1 millions of spectators, in front Crooked cops et Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. It is also the end of the exploration of the Jean-Claude Dusse character, since in the process, Michel Blanc refuses similar roles but accepts Bertrand Blier’s proposal for Evening dress.
His performance alongside Miou-Miou and Gérard Depardieu earned him the distinction of Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1986.
Thus, in a few years, seizing the opportunity to occupy the top of the bill with Come to my house, I live with a friendthen qualifying his famous character of Jean-Claude Dusse to deliver versions that convinced the public as much as the filmmakers of the time, Michel Blanc established himself as a leading actor, author and director. French cinema.