What happens when the technical team get in on the act

As part of the Festival’s tribute to Jean-Paul Belmondo, the Cinéma de la Plage is screening Le Magnifique (How to Destroy the Reputation of the Greatest Secret Agent/The One Magnificent) by Philippe de Broca. The filmmaker had to give his technical team walk-on parts to make filming easier.
 

The original idea developed in Le Magnifique (How to Destroy the Reputation of the Greatest Secret Agent/The One Magnificent) was to show a writer in the act of writing on-screen. The plot revolves around an author (François Merlin, played by Jean-Paul Belmondo) who is trying to finish the final episode of his hero’s extraordinary adventures by taking character traits from real people around him and giving them to his fictional characters. Philippe de Broca filmed in France, where his author writes, and Mexico, where the action in the book takes place. The main actors spent several days in South America, and Philippe de Broca came up with a cunning plan to make travelling a bit simpler. He gave walk-on roles to the team, from the hairdresser to the assistant cameraman, so that he could be sure to have them on set. He even plays a cameo role himself as a plumber. But that was no problem for the filmmaker, who had already appeared in several of his previous films.

A.C

The film is being screened at 9.30 pm at Plage Macé.