The Eye of INA: Yves Montand, centenary of the king of troubadours who dreamed of being president
Yves, Simone and Hollywood produced in 1960 recalls the time when while the actress received an Oscar for her role in Room at the top, her husband became, on the stages of Broadway, the king of French troubadours. It was also the time of a love affair between Montand and Marilyn Monroe, which went down in history as the first scandal revealed by a press that was not yet called people. Simone Signoret will forgive her an indiscretion which she will evoke thus, in front of a journalist: "Do you know many men who would remain insensitive by having Marilyn in their arms?"
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Directed in 1976 by Chris Marker The solitude of the background singer, remains an essential reference. The images were shot during a recital given by Montand in 1974 for the benefit of Chilean refugees. He hasn't set foot on a stage for six years and rehearsals will require even more effort than usual for the perfectionist he has never ceased to be.
Each step, each gesture, the slightest of his facial expressions require hours of work in front of a mirror or in the company of his pianist, Bob Castella, who is at the same time his trusted man, his secretary and his favorite whipping boy.
Every time the singer hits a wrong note, it's the accompanist's fault. With the bad faith of which the southerners can be capable, he showers him with reproaches and insults to which the interested party never pays attention. He knows it's a game and waits for the storm to pass. The affection between the two men is such that the day after Montand's death, Castella will never put his fingers on his keyboard again.
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Montand, a French Ronald Reagan?
In February 1984, on his return from a triumphant tour of recitals in France and the United States, Montand again created the event by providing the commentary on Long live the crisis, one of the first docu-dramas in the history of the little screen.
Directed by Vincent Manniez, it evokes, in the form of false reports, the state of the economy in the world. The 20 million viewers who have followed this program and the political class are impressed by its sense of pedagogy.
Some predicted a political career for him and a crazy rumor began to circulate: advised by men and women in the shadows, he was considering running in the 1988 presidential election. The first very promising polls led observers to say that he has every chance of becoming the "French Ronald Reagan". An event will curb his ambitions: the death of Simone Signoret in 1985. Montand believed in it but he lost his compass. On December 7, 1987, invited by Anne Sinclair in Questions à domicile, he announced that he had decided not to run for the highest office. "I don't have enough knowledge," he says.
Behind the scenes, he admits to having hesitated for a long time before giving up. After a royal career, would he have made a good President? History will never tell.
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