To play a bad actor in a convincing way, he must be mighty good. For the excellent Denis Podalydès, it is a child’s play. In a great scene of Fanny and Alexander he repeats Hamlet in the costume of the king of Denmark, a father appearing to his prince of a son in the form of a spectrum at the beginning of Shakespeare’s tragedy. He gropes, varies the tone, modulates the volume of her voice. He tries to get the gesture just the right placement. He was discouraged, balance the crown, disposes of the sheet that the clutters. The performance is funny and exciting. We see an actor at work. We understand very well what pushed Julie Deliquet to adapt the film of Ingmar Bergman, the work of wills of 1982, including the director and Swedish filmmaker has also written a book and pulled a long version into a tv series.

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Mise en abyme perfect

Fanny and Alexander is a manifesto on the theatre, its turpitude, its joys, its grandeur. What other troops as that of the Comédie-Française is more able to embody it on a tray? Julie Deliquet, already noted for his work with the actors of the French for his staging of Uncle Vanya at the Vieux-Colombier, happily reunited with the illustrious troupe.

Fanny and Alexander puts the spotlight on a family of actors. Oscar Ekdhal (Denis Podalydès) has been running a theatre under the gaze of his mother Helene (Dominique Blanc), a former actress. He is the husband of Emily (Elsa Lepoivre), she is also an actress. His brother, Gustav Adolf (Hervé Pierre) is a bon vivant, saucy who does not know more where to give head and rest between his wife, Alma (Florence Viala) and his mistress Shift, the preceptor of the children (Julie Sicard). His other brother, Carl (Laurent Stocker), is a professor at the caustic irony, ever avaricious of an insult to his wife, the German Lydia (Veronique Vella). The antique shop jew Isak Jacobi (Gilles David) and his nephew Aron (Noam Morgensztern) are also of the party. We discover everything this beautiful world in time for a Christmas meal merry, that brings sounds of laughter and champagne flowing freely. This carefree existence comes to an end with the death of Oscar during the repetition of Hamlet . A mise en abyme, perfect. The tragedy of Shakespeare is above all the story of the death of a father. The orphaned Fanny (Rebecca Marder), and Alexandre (Jean Knight) will get in their way suffer the consequences of this loss in a second part, much more dark. After the intermission, Émilie renounces the theatre and throws himself into the arms of the bishop Edvard Vergerus (Thierry Hancisse). The beginning of an ordeal for the children at the mercy of a brutal man, puritan and sinister, assisted by his sister, Henrietta (Anne Kessler) and the maid Justina (Anna Cervinka). The theatre will have the last word. It saves everything. It makes the existence more bearable. Bergman and Deliquet remind us that here brilliantly.

“Fanny and Alexander”, Comédie Française, Place Colette (Ier). Tel.: 01 44 58 15 15. Opening hours: 20: 30 and 14h. Until June 16, 2019. Duration: 2 hours 45 minutes including intermissions. Seat: from 5 to 42 €.

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