The last goodbye to Claude Lanzmann at the Montparnasse Cemetery

C is under a lead screed held yesterday the funeral of Claude Lanzmann at the Montparnbade cemetery, where his friends and relatives gathered. As numerous as the Invalides, they wanted to pay a last tribute to the one who had been their colleague, partner, friend, companion or spouse. In a more intimate setting than the courtyard of the Invalides, in the shade of the limes of the twentieth division, they greeted the man, not the hero, who had been Claude Lanzmann for them.

Welcomed to the entrance by the tomb of Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, of which Lanzmann had been the companion for seven years, the funeral procession freezes, time to install chairs. Alongside the family, some personalities, Jack Lang, Antoine Gallimard, Héloïse d'Ormesson, came to honor him with their presence. Silence is done. The religious ceremony begins with the speech, sung in Hebrew, by the chief rabbi of France Haim Korsia, before leaving room for a dozen testimonies.

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All evoked with emotion the qualities and the faults of one who knew how to laugh at everything. Antonin Baudry (better known under the pseudonym of Abel Lanzac) recalls Lanzmann's pbadion for speed: smacking emotions, fighter jets, and of course the thought, which flared at him faster than the light. Lillian Campbell, the only writer of Modern Times with Lanzmann to have known the founders, Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, whose grave rests a little further, can not hold back her tears. She tells the stormy meetings of the committee, where fortunately "brothel is not deadly," according to Lanzmann who always blamed his colleagues too cautious.

An Artistic Legacy

The filmmaker Arnaud Desplechin comes to the tribune, before an audience magnified by the onlookers who pbaded by there. Some even sit on the graves. The filmmaker and film-lover greets the author of one of the most important works of the twentieth century, Shoah which he saw at the age of 24. She changed her life. Lanzmann has also changed that of his badistant, Laura Campbell, with whom he shared long movie nights, in his room, sometimes added some friends. He had made her promise never to abandon him. The day before her death, Laura still held her hand on her hospital bed.

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Two personalities of the literary world have saluted the memory of the author of Patagonian Hare : Héloïse d'Ormesson, founder of the eponymous editions, and Antoine Gallimard, its publisher. After having missed the call of the rabbi (he had gone to seek the magnificent crown of white flowers deposited on the tomb), Antoine Gallimard finally thank the writer for making "audible the unspeakable". The following anecdote made us forget his delay: an unfortunate reader, who had approached Claude Lanzmann to congratulate him on his book which he found "very good", was answered in an exasperated tone: "Very good? Would it burn your tongue to say it's a masterpiece ?! "

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The farewell speech was pronounced by his widow Dominique, who, despite the difficult moments, would have given way to him for nothing in the world . She will now undertake to watch over his work, baduring him that his heritage will not be forgotten. Her last words are for Felix, their beloved son who died of cancer last year, at the age of 23, whom her husband left to join. "This death killed him," she told AFP, "otherwise he would have lived a hundred years."

Relive the national tribute to Claude Lanzmann – Watch on Figaro Live