Alain Decaux and Robert Hossein in June 2005, a year before the premiere of their Ben-Hur at the Stade de France. – SIMON ISABELLE / SIPA
His artistic heart was beating time for excess . Robert Hossein, died Thursday at 68 years, leaves behind a career as an actor on the boards and on the screen. But he will also have marked the spirits with his great shows, real blockbusters, which attracted crowds.
700. spectators for A man named Jesus
(1978), 480. 000 for The Lyon courier business (1987), 310. for Notre Dame de Paris (1978), 300. for the five performances of Ben-Hur in 2006… The attendance figures were enough to make you dizzy.
Robert Hossein who, at 15 years , decided to devote himself to the dramatic art had created in Reims at the beginning of the years 700 his “popular theater” and a school where they passed Anemone and Isabelle Adjani . His slogan was “theater like cinema! “. A vision that made him mix lights, music, classical texts and great feelings. Eight years and seventeen creations later, Reims was recognized on a national stage and the subsidies poured in but the artist decided to leave.
Mass Theater
AT from 1978, he then put on a show every two years in gigantic rooms where he preached hope.
From Julius Caesar to John Paul II, he mostly tells, with the historian Alain Decaux, historical figures. His work has become a mass theater speaking to the heart.
“The Earth is in danger of death. I said to myself: we need a universal awareness to get us out of the shit and reorganize the Earth, the sand, the sea and everyone ”, he shouted in his rocky voice.
Mystic
AT 50 years, at the end of the years 1970, he had chosen to be baptized at the same time as his son Julien , born of a third marriage. “I am not the one putting on the show, God helps me with everything”, this mystical and often bombastic humanist liked to repeat.
His last show,
A woman named Marie , played only one night in August 2011, had been seen by 20. 000 people at Lourdes .
He said: “If the public comes out of my shows with the desire to to love one’s neighbor a little more, with the desire to fight for more fraternity, with the disgust of injustice and inequality, so I am happy, I think I have been useful ”. Amen.