One afternoon on the couch of Josée Dayan | EUROtoday

On Mar 23, 2025

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CLike in a black movie. No daylight, the partitions coated with unique posters of cinema masterpieces, The Notte of Michelangelo Antonioni in Italian and French model, The bride was in black From François Truffaut, decanters and bottles of alcohol that garnish cell glass furnishings, a number of darkish leather-based armchairs, together with the lounge of Eames, lamps that gentle up with Jeanne Moreau’s framed portraits … The actress’s face can be wherever the gaze is posed within the reception rooms crammed with objects of this huge residence near Place Clichy, whose hall appears enormous.

Josée Dayan receives us, sun shades screwed on his nostril as a result of she has simply been operated on an outdated myopia. “It’s catastrophic, I see people as they are!” And me too. I’ve the impression of getting gone from the cinemascope to the uncooked gentle of a information. Maybe it was higher to remain obscure, besides to drive… ”. In entrance of us, she lights a cigar quickly after, which can end, half smoked, in a paper bag at her toes.

“Jeanne, for 18 years, we died together twice a week, we talked every day,” she mentioned once we discuss in regards to the large actress, who died at 89 years outdated in 2017. The director will quickly shoot an episode of Captain Marleau, This fantasy and with out attachment investigator, who strikes to enterprise and who offers lovely audiences at France 3 and now France 2. It was Josée Dayan who had the intuition, who felt the potential of Corinne Masiero within the position, after having noticed it in Retancourt Violette in his tv variations of the detective novels of Fred Vargas.

“I have never seen Gérard man behaving on a set”

” For Between winds and tides, I had asked the scriptwriter to include a gendarme. He was a terrible time, he was added a 4 x 4, he was put a chapka, a kind of parka and that’s it … Two days after the broadcast, my cheese, Madame Barthélémy, wanted to know who this gendarme was. And I never stopped being tackled in the street about her, she had an incredible impact. So I called Corinne to find out if she would be ready to be the heroine of a series, ”distills Josée Dayan quietly.

The principle of Marleau is simple: in each episode a prestigious guest gives the heroine. Josée Dayan must box the next with the daughter of Inès de la Fressange, Urso nine. For the pilot, the very first episode, she had asked Johnny Hallyday to his house in Los Angeles. The French Rocker had accepted, before the project got on. An accomplice had then responded to start the adventure with her: Gérard Depardieu.

The 76 -year -old actor, indicted for rape, is to appear in court tomorrow on March 24 for sexual assault committed on two technicians during the shooting of Green shutters. However, Josée Dayan has never dropped the friend who became Paria, who has not put his nose in front of a camera for almost four years: “If I believed responsible, I might not defend him. I have no idea Jacques Doillon or Benoît Jacquot, however I’ve no cause to not imagine the women, lastly … Judith Godrèche lived six years with Jacquot and wakes up 40 years later … “, she slips. “Gérard, he, I do know him, it is not possible, he’s not a rapist!” It’s stupid. »»

He is reminded that he is accused of having slipped her hand far into the pants of a woman, she protests: “I’ve by no means seen Gérard to behave on a set, I have no idea what these ladies are in search of …”, she asserts, before reminding, suddenly, a television journalist who had contacted her a few weeks ago. The latter wants her to testify in a documentary devoted to the interpreter of Cyrano. She agrees.

“Sartre is the one loss of life I’ve seen”

Obviously, Josée Dayan, 81, breathes the passion of the seventh art since his childhood in Algeria. However, his prolific career has only two feature films: Full iron, that she deny, – “the topic is zero, I hate pétanque” – and the very beautiful That loveinspired by the book testimony of Yann Andréa in which Jeanne Moreau plays Marguerite Duras.

Is it a regret? Not really, so dayan judges herself fast, too impatient: “I do what I need with TV, I’ve an concept, she materializes … In the films, it’s important to wait three years earlier than touching a digital camera and with the stress of the extra entrances … And now, many of the movies that work are comedies, which isn’t my factor,” she adds. Its adaptation of Count of Monte-Cristoin 1998 with Depardieu, had been a great audience success on TF1. Dayan has not seen the new cinematographic version at the 9 million admissions, “I didn’t have time, nor curiosity, however I’m delighted that Dumas nonetheless seduces. »»

The one who was assistant to Claude Chabrol, André Hunebelle or Jean Delannoy, earlier than stopping after ten lengthy years – “I wanted to know everything about all the positions of the profession” – to embark on the good bathtub of the belief at 27 years, is a monument of the tv adaptation of historic novels. However, within the lot of her many productions has slipped incongruity: a documentary on Simone de Beauvoir.

In actuality, Josée Dayan had tried, by means of his good friend editor Françoise Verny, to purchase the rights to The skilled lady. Beauvoir had refused. Some time later, right here she was taking off in Venice in 1974, for Titan’s loss of lifeduring the last days of composer Richard Wagner, through the February holidays. “And I see Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre Place Saint-Marc!” Although they’ve left educating for 50 years, that they had at all times left through the faculty interval! I run, I cease them. I method Beauvoir. »»

The intrepid Josée tries to make an appointment in Paris. The beaver agrees: “She said to me:” Give me your identify, take my telephone quantity “. I just had a ticket of a few books on me, I noted his number on it. Once in the philosopher, she concedes that she will give her the rights if she loves her film on Wagner. A projection is organized. Verdict? “The situation isn’t good, however you may have expertise, I give them to you,” said Beauvoir’s sentence in Dayan. The two women have become close. Dayan, activist of any cause, put in box The second sex And went around the world for its promotion.

She places That love At the top of his filmography

“Sartre is the one loss of life I’ve seen,” recalls, still shocked, the one who was one of the few to go to the hospital after his death. She was going to kiss Beauvoir, who seated held the hand of her old companion. A dinner then brings together a dozen faithful of the couple in a brewery. “At the time of addition, everyone offers to settle. Beauvoir pronounced a sentence that I always have in mind: “No, tonight, Sartre is delighting”. »»

When we inquire about his subjects which could bring these two women together, Josée Dayan offers an annoyed pout. “Your query jogs my memory Cursed kings. I had a unprecedented photograph director, Ennio Guarnieri, who had collaborated with Fellini, enlightened The Garden of Finzi Contini de Sica … He was fairly outdated. During lunchtime, we chortle. We depart for the tray and there a younger decorator involves ask me if I defined the plan to him, tips on how to proceed … however in no way! We talked about cooking pasta! »»

Josée Dayan has undergone few intervals of shortage. If she knew about it, this frenzied individualist was gnawing on his brake: “I will never have gone to point unemployment, or complain to a union: it was my problem. »»

The general public discovered Josée Dayan in 1995, when the The Espérance river, Minister written by Christian Signol. His banter, his quickdraw then, cigar, leather jacket and santiags, his funny bad mood helped to shape an endearing media character. She swears that notoriety has not changed anything in her. Really ? “But sure!” Everything can stop overnight. I have never programmed anything except to be free. I am a blood blood, I don’t feel French at all, but Neapolitan like my father’s mother, and when you are Neapolitan, you don’t care about everything. »»

“I’m not maso!” »»

As a couple for several decades with Nicole, Josée Dayan did not want to get fucked up, “I’ve 4 cats,” she said as an argument. We laugh by retorting that the investment is not the same, she gets carried away: “But once I lose a cat, I’m devastated!” One of them played with the cable intake, causing the call of a technician. The false breakdown, Josée Dayan fell on Queen Margot From Patrice Chéreau with Adjani, to the delight of this lover of the stars, these fragile and powerful beings, who take the light so well. “Isabelle is outstanding,” admires the director, whose voice sounds softer at the mention of the friend with common origins, Algeria, where Josée has never returned since independence.

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Answer

In his private pantheon, Josée Dayan place on the prime This love. “Afterwards, I would put Balzac, Diane de Poitiers And Cursed kings, Or 4 out of more than 150… ”The one who does not understand the meaning of the word retirement is preparing to live, again, a busy year: several shoots of Captain MarleauTV movies, including perhaps the first for a platform. It would seem that Josée Dayan is nowhere to be happy anymore than on a set, to direct his actors, with whom, only one socket is enough. She nods in her own way: “I’m not maso!” Obviously I find it irresistible! »»

Captain Marleau: in replay on France Television and in replay in Paris Première

https://www.lepoint.fr/culture/un-apres-midi-dans-le-canape-de-josee-dayan-23-03-2025-2585447_3.php