Dany Boon on familiar road with ‘Madeleine’
Is “Driving Madeleine” a French update on that Oscar-winning classic “Driving Miss Daisy”?
Not exactly, although both films are car-centric with an elderly, indomitable passenger. While “Daisy” was fueled by racial considerations, “Madeleine” mixes a working man’s plight, an elderly woman’s transition from independent living, a sightseeing trip through a picturesque Paris and, most triumphantly, its willingness to score as an unabashed tearjerker.
Madeleine (Line Renaud) at 92 wants a final taxi tour of the city before moving into assisted living. The driver Charles (Dany Boon) has money trouble made worse by the cops. One more ticket he’ll lose his license.
The two trade stories, the trip continues into the night, something wonderful happens.
Writer-director Christian Carion was Oscar-nominated for “Joyeux Noël” (“Merry Christmas”) about the legendary Christmas truce in WWI where French, German and British soldiers in the trenches dropped their guns, sang and toasted the holy holiday.
Boon, known for his comedic French blockbusters, won praise and a new direction career-wise with a serious “Joyeux” role.
Carion sent Boon the “Madeleine” script. But Boon passed.
“Christian was attached to direct the film. When he called me, he knew that I had said no. He said, ‘I rewrote it’ and I said, ‘I’m OK to read it — to help you to finance the film.’ The screenplay was nice but not as good as when Christian rewrote it.
“I was so touched by the new draft and the way he was telling the same story! It totally blows my mind. I called him: ‘I love the screenplay!’
“I cried. It touches you so deeply. And I love the fact that the story became about the couple going through Paris on an inner journey.
“I was so happy after 20 years to work with him again. We are more than friends.”
That’s also true for Renaud. At 95 she remains a legendary figure, primarily as a singer. She and Boon had costarred in the 2018 comedy “Family is Family.”
“She’s full of energy. The last movie we did together, she played my mother. It was her birthday during the shooting. She said to the crew, ‘When I turned 40 I was thinking that maybe my career as an actress was going to end. And no, it was just the beginning of something.
“‘I felt the same when I turned 50 And the same when I aged to 60 and 70, then 80. Now I’ve turned 90 and it’s the beginning of something else.’
“So she’s amazing,” Boon acknowledged. “An amazing example for artists.”