A FRENCHMAN IN ITALY: JACQUES HERLIN INTERVIEW

This interview was conducted by Pascal Françaix and translated from French by Frédérick Durand

European Film Review: Can you tell us something of your background?

Jacques: I was born in 1927 so I'm now 70, unfortunately [this interview was conducted in 1997 - ed]. I grew up in Toulon , and I went to Paris in 1951. I studied dramatic art for one year, in the class of Raymond Girard (he's now dead). It was a very good course - Belmondo and Françoise Fabian attended it. I lived in Belmondo's apartment for 18 months; I was cooking and giving him the cue to prepare his beginning at the Conservatory. We were very close friends. Then, I found myself in a young theater company, where I didn't get any money. I was living in a small room: the classical line of any young comedian. It was hard, but I was happy in that business. I had a lot of roles in France , mostly in classic plays. This lasted one or two years. I was learning my craft.

After this, I began visiting larger theaters in search of work. The last one I had on my list was the Michodière, that belonged to François Perier and Pierre Fresnay. When I arrived in front of the artists' entrance, I saw a dozen of guys holding manuscripts. I thought : "Something's happening here..." When the stage-manager appeared and asked if I had an appointment I said "Sure, I called Pierre Fresnay last night - he said it would be best just to come in and meet him here!" I was ushered in and shown to the stage floor. The floodlight was turned on and then, after a silence, I heard Fresnay say: "OK. Well.. You've got guts! Very good. Come over and watch all these young people and then you can have a go".

Jacques Herlin plays it cool with Beryl Cunningham in LOVE ME BABY LOVE ME

So there I was, sitting next to him, suffering a complete mixture of stagefright, horror and excitement. All of the guys did exactly the same routine (I later found out that 300 comedians had auditioned for the part and these were the finalists). From time to time Fresnay would make comments - "Drop that line", "Be more intense" and so on - which I listened to carefully. At the end, he asked me: "So, what do you want to do? Have a go tonight or come back tomorrow?" Knowing that I wouldn't have the courage to come back if I left it until the next day, I volunteered to do it then. I had twenty minutes to learn the lines, and then. the fear! I didn't know the text by heart and the stage manager was giving me the cue, but at the end Fresnay said: "Well. very good. Can you come back tomorrow and sign your contract?"

And that was my first play in Paris, with Pierre Fresnay and Yvonne Printemps. After that, it didn't stop. I ended up doing theater for 10 or 12 years.

European Film Review: How did you end up in Italy ?

Jacques: I went there in 1962, to act in a play. While I was in Rome, I was offered a part by Elio Petri [Jacques would later appear in Petri's The Tenth Victim and Property is No Longer Theft]. I soon fell in love with the place, and from then I did one film after another. For 17 or 18 years, I never stopped. Really, it was one film after another. I had an enormous luck, to be honest. It all really started with a film by Lattuada, La Mandagora, where I was only on set for one day and my name wasn't even on the titles... I didn't care. I loved my character, and had completely crazy dialogue. The film was a critical and commercial success.

After this, my agent called to tell that I had been offered a new role; and from that point on it never stopped: Fellini, Visconti, Dino Risi. You see, at this time Italy was producing more films than the USA; almost one a day, 360 films a year. Later it went into freefall, mainly because of TV, and they were only making about 30 - half of which were porn flicks. I wouldn't appear in porn, not necessarily for moral reasons but more because it 'classifies' you.

It wasn't just actors; there weren't any jobs for technicians either. After about three years of this I decided to return to live in France. It took me a long time to leave as I was so happy in Italy: I had cash, a little car with a folding hood, a great apartment and my friends. I still visited people in Paris, so I knew it wasn't much easier here, but I figured I just had to start over. I'm glad I did, because the Italian industry just isn't getting any better.

European Film Review: There were a lot of French actors in Italy, during the sixties.

Jacques: Oh yes, indeed. When I arrived I became very good friends with Philippe Leroy [Beaulieu], even living in his house for a while. We both appeared in a Tinto Brass western (Yankee)

Page 1: Jacques Herlin, an introduction
Page 2: On acting in France and Italy
Page 3: On Tinto Brass, Ironmaster & shooting spaghetti westerns
Page 4: On Frankenstein's Aunt, Ferdy Mayne and Eddie Constantine

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