In the winter of 1979, after their adventures at Club Med in Galaswinda, Côte d’Ivoire, the Splendid troupe found themselves in the snow, struggling with acrobatic butt lifts, broken chairlifts, numerous skiers and shallot liqueur flavored with garlic juice, with toad in the bottle. In one hour twenty-six of film, it’s a whole era that passes by, that of flashy outfits, from the line to the ski lift and the apartments in timeshare (Gérard Jugnot and Josiane Balasko dislodge the previous occupants by swinging their Scrabble from the balcony). Tanned people go skiing seem indestructible, coming back so often to haunt and amuse us.
It is in Val-d’Isère that the film takes place, even if we could be in another station (it is an archetype, it is the strength of the film). “Stéphane Clavier, brother of the actor and nephew of our producer Yves Rousset-Rouard, was an instructor at the local French Ski School (ESF), remembers the director, Patrice Leconte. He introduced us to the essential Fernand Bonnevie.the old monitor who martyrs Jean-Claude Dusse (Michel Blanc) because of his faulty stick plant. “He had sun-tanned skin and he played the game perfectly. » Leconte and some of the actors returned to Val-d’Isère in 2019, for the 40th anniversary of the film. “I didn’t recognize anything, he assures. This station which had seemed old-fashioned to me, I found it very current and completely in the blow. » However, in this V-shaped valley, at 1,850 meters above sea level, the emblematic places of the film are still there.
Mythical black run
In the heart of the village, the Hôtel Val-d’Isère was that of Jean-Claude Dusse, who desperately seeks to ” conclude “ and finds himself sharing his bed with Popeye (Thierry Lhermitte), driven out by his wife. Higher up is the creperie of Gigi (Marie-Anne Chazel), who still does not make “crepe with juice” : the unfortunate vacationer who refuses “thin layer of buckwheat, seared upside down and sprinkled with warm rose petals” is kicked out by the cook. Taken over by Félix Ramade, grandson of the founders, it is now the restaurant La Charpenterie, with its unchanged blond wood decor. Elsewhere, you can see La Grande Ourse and its vast terrace where Gérard Jugnot makes all the skis planted well aligned collapse (“They won’t fall any lower”). In front of the Hôtel Les Crêtes blanches, Dominique Lavanant pushes her elderly lover’s car and gets snowed in the face.
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