To dedicate a museum to Louis de Funès is to reverse decades of dissatisfaction. More than anyone else, Louis de Funès is the popular actor. By his success (never denied), because he speaks to the body (through laughter) as well as the soul, because he has until now been denied the sesame of cultural legitimation. (…) In one way, de Funès is a singular genius, a force set apart, difficult to define, but this has allowed him to carve out a place for himself in the collective imagination, to become a social phenomenon. It would take pages to fully explore this mystery full of pleasure, childhood, nostalgia for Sunday evenings and mirror effects between a people who watch and a man who plays a part. (…)
Fernandel was from Marseille. Bourvil forever provincial. De Funès is national. He speaks to us in our lowliness, our aggressiveness, and our fragility too. And to finish, I leave you with a mystery. To my knowledge, Louis de Funès has never played the role of a son. This orphan had no choice but to be loved.