The little secrets of the 7th company

Behind the scenes of the trilogy that triumphed in theaters before becoming a hit every time it was broadcast on TV. Like tonight on TF1?

An original idea by Robert Lamoureux

At the beginning of The 7th Companythere is a man. Robert Lamoureux. A superstar of the stage who had already made a splash in the cinema, (Dad, mom, the maid and me and its 3.7 million admissions, the Arsène Lupin under the direction of Jacques Becker then Yves Robert…) and signed two feature films as acclaimed by the public as they were hated by critics (Lovely And The Brunette that's here) in the 50s and 60s. Then he moved away from cinema for 13 years before resurfacing with a very simple idea but not really adaptable to the theater: the comical misadventures of two soldiers and their sergeant-major, lost in the wilderness, during the debacle of June 1940. He had the ear of one of the king producers of the time, Alain Poiré who, within Gaumont, had just chained Megalomania And The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe. Poiré had flair: But where has the 7th company gone? brought together 3.9 million admissions. It was the third biggest success of 1973 behind Rabbi Jacob And My name is Nobody.

Aldo Maccione's demands

In the role of soldier Tassin, Aldo Maccione is one of the pillars of the first episode of The 7th Company but is absent from the second, The 7th Company was found. Partly because his favorite pastime on set – making jokes and creating repeated fits of laughter on set – tended to get on Robert Lamoureux's nerves. But mostly for contractual reasons: following the success of the first episode, the actor revealed two years earlier by Claude Lelouch in The thug will try to renegotiate his salary upwards. Poiré and Gaumont will remain inflexible. He will be replaced by Henri Guybet

The rise of Jean-Marie Poiré

Not credited in the screenplay of the first part, Jean-Marie Poiré, Alain's son, appears in the spotlight from the second episode. Already an assistant on Oscar by Edouard Molinaro and screenwriter alongside Michel Audiard (Don't take God's children for wild ducks…) and Georges Lautner (Some gentlemen too quiet…), he is officially associated with the screenplay and dialogues ofWe found the 7th company Then The 7th Company in the Moonlight where the characters will be propelled from 1940 to 1942, from the debacle to the resistance. The latter was released in 1977, the same year that the future director of Visitors began his career as a director with Little Hugs.

Jean-Marie Poiré: “I am not far from the cinema of Jean-Luc Godard” [interview]

The arrival of Gérard Jugnot

The cardboard ofWe found the 7th company (again third in the 1975 box office – behind The Towering Inferno And Fear in the city – with 3.7 million entries) mathematically leads to a third part: The 7th Company in the Moonlight. But, all hands on deck, Pierre Tornade, Erik Colin and Robert Dalban disappear from the cast, replaced in particular by André Pousse, Jean Carmet and Gérard Jugnot. Already a pillar of the Bande du Splendid, we have seen him appear in many small roles since 1973 (The Valseuses, Let the festivities begin, The Judge and the Assassin, The toy, The tenant…). But The 7th Company in the Moonlight will mark an almost final point at this period in his career. The following year, the cardboard of Tanned will change his destiny which will lead him four times in front of Poiré's camera: Little Hugs, Great comeback, Santa Clause is garbage And Grandpa is resisting.

A fourth episode nipped in the bud

The 7th Company in the Moonlight suffered a sharp decline in admissions compared to its two predecessors (1.7 million admissions, “only” the 12th success of the year). But no matter, the aircraft manufacturer and producer (The party…) Marcel Dassault wants a sequel. And even an idea: the meeting between the 7th company and Frankenstein! But Robert Lamoureux decides to throw in the towel. He will never return to directing and will only reappear in cinema once more, in Kings' day by Marie-Claude Treilhou in 1991. He died in 2011 at the age of 91.

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