Great classics of French cinema. This Friday, July 29, M6 devotes its evening to the adventures of the chief sergeant Ludovic Cruchot. Indeed, the private channel will broadcast Le Gendarme de Saint-Tropez at 9:10 p.m. and Le Gendarme à New York at 11:00 p.m. Originally, the film was an unpretentious comedy, made on a low budget (1.35 million francs). When it was released in theaters on September 9, 1964, the triumph was unexpected: the film recorded 7,809,334 spectators in all cinemas in France. A cult feature film which will follow five other episodes until 1982.
If the success of the saga of the Gendarme owes in large part to the comic talent of its main actor Louis de Funès, certain scenes, imagined by its director Jean Girault, also contributed to it. Cinephiles will undoubtedly remember the nudist hunting scenes, the various training sessions for subordinates or the chase with Sister Clotilde’s sidecar.
Saint-Tropez obviously acts as the main setting for outdoor filming. However, half of the other shots are “made at the Victorine studios in Nice”, says journalist Bertrand Dicale in his book Louis de Funès de A à Z, published by Gründ editions in March 2020. Despite the age of the film, it continues to inspire many vacationers during their stay in Saint-Tropez, which is proof of its popular success over the generations.
“It goes without saying, the film had an impact on the city. Its cinema release attracted the crowds, who wanted to discover Saint-Tropez and its gendarmerie brigade. Today it is the gendarmerie building whose facade was the most photographed in France”, explains Laurence Durieux, director of the Museum of the gendarmerie and cinema of Saint-Tropez.
In our slideshow below, discover five iconic places from the saga to visit.
