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Excerpts from
"Louis Jouvet"
by Jean-Marc Loubier


At Notre Dame College:
[...] He reads a lot. He's thinking more and more about theatre. Of course, he talks about it with his mother, with his uncle. Both are very much against it. That's not a profession. That's the refrain he'll hear throughout his youth. "My whole family sang it and repeated it to me in unison with all the variations that are known in the art of the fugue." [...] Louis must become a pharmacist, so have decided his relatives when his father died. He accepts out of duty. He accepts so they'll leave him in peace. [...] "I had just promised to my family that I would enroll at the Faculty. It's with that promise that they finally stopped hounding me." [...]

Failure at the entrance exams at the Paris Conservatoire:
[...] His three failures at gaining admittance to the Conservatoire left Jouvet wounded. It was a hard blow for him; disillusion, self-doubt. He wanted to play in a personal way the man he thought he could see through the role [Arnolphe, in Ecole des Femmes], "the old fogeys, the hollow heads" didn't accept it. They didn't like his face. "From that point on, I hated my face, I resented it, and I ignored it." [...]

With Copeau:
[...] Copeau leads his fight head-on. Two men stand out from the company's ensemble, Dullin and Jouvet: Dullin, obstinate actor, viscerally driven by the will to succeed; Jouvet more reserved. At rehearsal time, they must look for him, call him. This tall, thin, blue-eyed boy is finally living out his dream. To performing, he prefers the backstage activity. No matter where, no matter how, no matter the time it is, he's doing what there is to be done. Stage-hand, set designer, painter and stage manager, all rolled into one. [...]

The guiding principle behind Louis Jouvet's theatre:
[...] Jouvet wants to maintain theatre in all its literary dignity. He commands health, vigor, elegance.[...] Jouvet has a lot to say. He must fulfill himself both as an actor and as a leader. Strong and healthy ideas, clearly and simply expressed to give them a workable form that can be transmitted to the public. Jouvet is leery of dark ideas and psychological feelings, of their unspoken echoes. Freud has no hold on him. Louis Jouvet charms, imposes himself right away. By understanding the important role of theatre machinery and that, even more important, of lighting, he gives them if not a predominance over the text often an equal status. Jouvet is moving forward. He expresses classical conceptions of stage direction to which he applies technical conceptions. Jouvet loves the feeling of communion with the public. He treats the public with respect. He may not always bring a treasure to his public but he gives them the illusion that they are clever. [...]

Jouvet moves to the Ath�n�e:
[...] When Valentin Marquetty asks him about this, Jouvet goes straight to the point: "They told you I was a sellout? Let them talk! They love to talk; especially if it's to say something nasty. [...] You saw the way I stage Giraudoux's plays? And how much they cost me? I don't want to be stopped by financial considerations anymore. I've got to find a way to bring in money, because too much of it is going out. A work of art must be a thing of perfection. Boulevards theatres? So be it! More people will certainly come here than did at the Com�die. I need more people. [...] Don't worry, old friend! They'll come. And Jouvet won't stop being Jouvet. He won't dishonor himself because he's switching theatres." [...]

Movies:
[First offer from the movies]
Jouvet flatly refuses. He doesn't feel ready for this type of exercise. For the time being, he's leery of the 'moving images'.
"The movies? I haven't got time. I have other things on my mind. They have nothing in common with the theatre, and even if one day one could express himself in them, how do you want to perform in front of that glass eye, where they make you play the fool and repeat the same thing twenty times in a row? And you often have to begin by the end. [...] No, that kind of work is broken, without continuity, without logic... If you knew [...] what it is for an actor to carry a role within himself! He needs to live it from beginning to end, in the daily stability of the stage and without people interrupting and bothering him every three minutes. And who knows if I wouldn't actually ruin my theatre by making a fool of myself on the screen! If you want to make a fool of yourself, you should do it well or not at all!" [...]

[Filming of Topaze, his first movie]
Intrigued, more than lost, he applies himself in front of this "glass eye". The director, Louis Gasnier, is extremely patient and Jouvet very disciplined. He doesn't protest, follows orders, does retakes. Pagnol, who is there every day of the shooting, encourages his actor. Gasnier initiates Jouvet to the technical aspects, answers patiently all the questions of the actor who confesses, without false modesty, that he doesn't always understand what's going on. Jouvet lends himself to the technical game and accepts to have told to him: "Let me handle this; just act, I'll take care of the rest." As in theatre, with the same care, he gives his best, smoothly, sincerely, faithful to the text. Gasnier, many times, offers to show him the rushes: "No, I haven't got time, I'll see it later when it's finished. I'll watch it in a movie house and I'll listen to the reactions of the public. The important thing is that Marcel [Pagnol] is happy!" [...]

[...] He probably came too soon for the movies. Commercialism disgusts him. He has no qualms about calling it a prostitution of the actor. He says this publicly and people believe him. The producers, the directors, put him on the list of those 'who are not interested'.
[...] "every time he was shooting a movie, he was more fussy, more brutal, in a bad mood, always giving us a hard time. I think he had the impression he was wasting his time, wasting whole days in studios, while he had better things to do in his theatre." [...]

[Pr�vert about Bizarre Bizarre]
"As for myself, I had a lot of fun with [Michel] Simon and I didn't get along too well with Jouvet. This gentleman felt only contempt for cinema and he said it openly. It's difficult to direct actors like Michel Simon, like Jouvet. You just have to let them do their thing, sometime hold them back or push them a little, tell them to what scene what they're about to shoot is related, explain to them that it comes after what they've shot eight days ago, or before what they'll shoot in two weeks." [...]

[Premiere of 'Entr�e des Artistes']
As usual, Jouvet doesn't want to see himself, he "doesn't like to encounter this 'me' that's separated from me, that 'I' who no longer belongs to me, that past being, that effigy that the movies build up from the actor. My pride or my humility, perhaps both, have always prevented me from recognizing myself on the screen. I have no taste for these encounters. Each time I've attempted them, they've only given me back sensations or physical states that had disappeared in the fog of memory. They usually were pleasant and strange but, alas! always faded and dissatisfied." [...]

Teaching at the Conservatoire:
[...] He seizes his new task with a lot of emotion. "Young people are fragile, we shouldn't hit on them too hard. They haven't got used to being beaten up by life. We may discourage them. [...] Jouvet hasn't forgotten his difficult and painful early years. That famous "ugly mug" they told him he had! Still, being a student in Jouvet's class is no picnic. Seldom a compliment or an encouraging word. [...] His students are often called 'stupid' 'cretin' 'imbecile'. Kindly words in Jouvet's mouth. [...] Still, they fight to get in his class. Few are the lucky ones who can get in. [...] "As for his teaching, it was hard, harsh, extremely demanding, scathing, -and with good reason- [...] He made us work like animals! We would stand on the small stage and then, just as we would begin, we would hear: "You don't know your lines!... You haven't worked at all!... Do it again!... You forgot to close the door!...[...] and then sometimes: "Go ahead, you're almost there!" When he said that, what a compliment it was!" [...]

Achard wants Michel Simon in Jean de la lune:
[...] "It was, says Achard, a nice operation of instant deep-freeze. With both men face to face, the temperature immediately fell several degrees. [Pierre] Renoir and I instinctively turned up the collar of our overcoats. Jouvet asked a series of metallic staccato questions to which the other responded with the same nonchalance that makes every line of his so priceless. Michel Simon then read some lines, very badly, with a thick, mumbling voice." That's no surprise for Jouvet. He's been working with Simon for seven shows now and he knows what to expect. To Achard, who mischievously asks him his opinion, he says: "You see the piece of work! Wonderful, isn't it? Well, if you're taking the responsibility for it." The four weeks of rehearsals only reinforce Jouvet's opinion. Worried, he's fuming to see the stammering Simon get still more muddled, lifeless and without expression. There's no doubt, the play will fail. "My little Marcel, you're a fool! Your play is delightful but you shouldn't have meddled with it. I'm going to lose a fortune." [...] but the public likes it. Jouvet is a bit less upset about the play being transformed into a vaudeville act. [Simon] is Clo-Clo for about 60 performances at the Com�die, then he decides of his own accord, [...] to give up the role. He just can't get along with Jouvet who he described thus to Marcel Achard: "He's a bastard! He refuses to give me a raise, when I'm the one bringing gold in his coffers. He's always in a bad mood! There are nights I feel like killing him! I'm not in this profession to have a hard time! I'm sick of it!" The mood swings of Michel Simon have no effect whatsoever on Louis Jouvet.

Cocteau-Jouvet:
[Jouvet had asked Cocteau to write a play for him in 1924]
"My dear Jouvet, alas!, I really have never written a play before [...]. Theatre is back-breaking work and I can guess how tired you are, how hard it is for you to find something that warrants your devotion. If I had only one act, I'd give it to you instantly as to integrity, to talent itself. [...] Dear Jouvet, I am deeply touched by your friendship, and your request."

[La machine infernale in 1934]
In fact, Cocteau plans to have his career as a dramatist linked to that of Jouvet as theatre director: "All my life, in fact! You'll have to build a room for me in the theatre. I will live here one day, that's for sure." From that point on, Jouvet urges Cocteau to write another play. Already...! Four months of rehearsals. Jouvet is restless. Nothing escapes his worried eye. Leaning over a row of seats, he needles his actors. He shouts when they don't give him what he wants. He bites. He pushes, shoves, insults... But he also asks everybody's opinion. [...]

Fear of failure:
[Opening night of La Margrave]
[...] "Why did [Pierre] Renoir, who was stage right, while I was stage left, feel like me, at the same instant, from the opening lines (...) that all was lost and that the play would be unsuccessful? I was at that moment in the wings, waiting to make my entrance, and I remember the horror I felt as I was listening to my colleagues, sensing like them the cold air coming from a suddenly unfriendly house. I was trying to find reasons to explain this, perhaps I had made an error in my choice of staging, perhaps my approach to the play was wrong, perhaps the public just hadn't warmed up to it yet, perhaps the beginning of the play was too weak, and it would only start moving a bit later; but when, pulling myself together, I made my entrance on the stage with my last ounce of energy, why did I understand once and for all, in the mute hostility, the cold iciness, that the play would never get a response from the public?" (Jouvet)

[Opening night of L'Ecole des femmes]
His interpretation is perfect, meticulously studied: but still Jouvet overcome with a case of nerves can't go on stage. They must bring down the curtain, Jouvet is unable to perform. He can't remember his lines, he's panicking, he's confused. In the wings, they're warming him up, they're reassuring him and, almost in spite of himself, he finally makes his entrance and it's an outburst of sincerity. In turn pitiful, imposing, admirable, biting, powerful, weak, pathetic, silly, amusing... Jouvet may never have had a more unanimous success..

Jouvet-Giraudoux
[...] Magical meeting between two poets, two musicians, an almost magical communion between composer and conductor. Jouvet said of Giraudoux: 'From him I have learned theatre and friendship"; and Giraudoux wrote about Jouvet: "As a matter of fact, the dramatist has now two muses, one before he writes, Thalia, and the second, after; and for me, this is Jouvet."

[...] "When he writes, he's not on the stage; he forgets what we have to do; he has a tendancy to wander off in nature. Or else he changes his writing style. I have to think of ourselves, of what we're able to do. We can't always go climbing in the flies. I hesitate, I make suggestions, I point out some things... [...] And I'll tell you the thing I'd like engraved on my tombstone when I die: Here lies Louis Jouvet who never caused any sorrow to Jean Giraudoux," and Giraudoux seems to answer: "It happens very frequently that one of these phantoms (the characters of a play) still wet from coming out of their nothingness and their silence, dares take at once the casual and talkative form of Louis Jouvet. I feel so close to him; the dramatic harness that unites us is so well-tied, that the embryonic apparition in one minute has already taken on his mouth, his mocking eye and his pronunciation. So much so that this wonderful friend, this peerless actor becomes two for me in its presence, and he himself becomes within me a character who's assailing me with thougths and deliriums, and for whom I have neither found, nor searched for, any other name, when I write down his comments, than that of Jouvet himself." [...]

[...] Brothers so respectul of one another that the deepest friendship forced them to always address each other formally, to everyone's surprise. [...] The rehearsals begin. Jouvet, extraordinary in his authority and courage, imposes a strictness and a will. Nobody would dare disobey him. Even Giraudoux to whom the "boss" is always asking for touch-ups. Jouvet tries to ease the literary aspects with dramatization. He rages all the time, but never raises his voice when speaking to Giraudoux. They get along perfectly.[...]