by Doctor Flamour, welcome Mister Chance … Fabulous actor who died at the age of 54 in 1980, Peter Sellers left an indelible footprint in the cinema. He was also the director of a single film, which he hated to the point of wanting to destroy him …
It is not exactly a discovery. The shooting of a film, in front and / or behind the camera, is not always, far from it, a long quiet river. Experience can even turn to the extreme, as was the case for Apocalypse Now, whose homeric shooting is told in the mind-blowing making-of Heart of Darkness. Or Fitzcarraldo by Werner Herzog, and his conflicting relations with Klaus Kinski.
If some talents of cinema do not particularly express the desire to one day style the director's cap, just as numerous are those who end up giving in to the sirens of the realization, by envy and / or by challenge.
The fact remains that some of these attempts will not be renewed. For what ? Painful and exhausting experiences, financial reasons … These are not the explanations that are missing. Here is a good example, with a legendary British actor who left an inimitable imprint, before taking his reverence at the age of 54: Peter Sellers.
A pink panther at Marcel Pagnol
Two years before winning in the irresistible role of Inspector Jacques Clouseau in the saga of the Pink Panther, and three years before camping the brilliant Doctor Fangour at Stanley Kubrick, Peter Sellers curiously chosen to make for his first staging an adaptation of the work of Marcel Pagnol: Topaze.
History? Topaz, a teacher, is secretly in love with Ernestine, the daughter of the director of the institution. Cered by learning the nature of the feelings of his employee dismissed him on the spot. Topaze is then engaged by a crooked politician, an experience that will transform him at all.
Bfi
Author of the eponymous play, Marcel Pagnol made two topaz adaptations. The first version of Topaz (1936) features Arnaudy, Delia-Col and Léon Brouzet. The second version of Topaz, shot in 1951, is almost twenty minutes longer and offers the services of Fernandel, Marcel Vallee, Jacqueline Pagnol and Pierre Larquey.
The version signed by Sellers has experienced a singular destiny to say the least. The story will especially remember that the actor / director, dissatisfied with his work, would have recovered all the copies in circulation at the time of the release of the film, and would have destroyed them …
Anyway, there is only one copy of the film known to date; It is preciously preserved in the archives of the British Film Institute. We are not ready to see the result. Especially since the copy was only projected in extreme occasions, as within the framework of the Independent Cardiff Film Festival Festival ago …
