Elise Fraley
They didn’t have an audience, but they put their hearts into it. “Un air d’Enfoirés”, the last artist show for Restos du cœur, taped in January 2022 in Montpellier, was broadcast on Friday 4 March at 9:10 pm on TF1. It all started with her head in the stars, as disabled tennis player Pauline Derulliday floated on the moon and peeked out at soccer player Kylian Mbappe. Soon they were joined by dozens of other Envoires, crediting the nicknames “Plus haut” to Frans Gall and “En apesanteur” to Calogero.
A wonderful moment of emotion when they turned Michel Sardo’s words “Lac de Connemara” in order to salute all the artists in attendance, even inflicting a nod to Jean-Jacques Goldmann, who left Envoiret six years ago.
The succession of musical tabloids was very rich. On the one hand, the numbers are sometimes very energetic or playful: “Crazy” by Soprano, “Le reste” by Clara Luciani, “Dieu m’a donne la foi” by Ophele Winter, “Katchi” by the duo Ofenbach, “Le Mambo decalco” by Richard Guttner, “La Seine” by M…
Knockout from Patrick Broel
On the other hand, more serious moments: “Ordinaire” by Robert Charlebois, “I’ll Be Back to Take You” by Gilbert Becaud, “Voila” by Barbara Braffy nicely covered by the trio of Camelia Jordana, Anne Silla and Noluene Leroy, “Châtelet les Halles” by Florent Bagni, “my friend Dear Marc Lavoine…Everyone benefited from the amazing performances of extraordinarily large scale that were eye-opening.
Among our favorite moments this evening: the cover of “Derrière le brouillard” by Grand Corps Malade and Louane, where we heard Patrick Brouil sing a slam, it doesn’t happen every day. But also the solemn return of Catherine Lara accompanied by Rhino Capuson on violin in Goldman’s song “He Changed Life” or the touching moment of communication between Jean-Louis Hubert, Patrick Fiore, Claudio Capio and Pinabar with four children in “Po-Dad” by Vianni.
Also note the sympathetic engagement of Kad Merad and Vanessa Paradis from a distance, who have recorded scenes on the video as background to certain titles.
The band organized in Ch’ti . mode
For once, the majority of the humorous sequences were successful. Taking advantage of the audience’s absence to shoot them behind the scenes, the show was downright compelling, whether it was jokes about Gerard Gugneau’s wig, Nespresso parodies or Karglass ads, or the transformation of the orchestrated band, Marseille’s collective rappers led by Jul or Ch style ’tis or Breton.
A little flat on a soccer coach’s sketch is a bit tall, and it’s definitely a big figure for a completely downed space shuttle, an excuse to represent Thomas Bisquet in an astronaut’s suit…
The absence of the audience was sometimes felt, for security reasons in the midst of the Covid-19 epidemic, especially during the wide shots that showed empty armchairs, but the Enfoirés preferred to ridicule the situation, dedicating several sequences to Nicolas Cantelo trying to sell DVDs of the show in deserted stands.
Being deprived of spectators, Restos du Coeur showed a deficit of 4 million euros. Donations and purchases of CDs and DVDs for this evening (19.99€ and 24.99€, each sale representing 17 meals), available from Saturday 5 March, are the most important.
