It’s their destiny V – 2nd Season | C'est leur destin | M6

THE SECRETS OF THE “INCONNUS” (The Unknowns) It was at the beginning of the eighties that the “Inconnus” got started. The trio (Pascal Légitimus, Bernard Campan, Didier Bourdon) were launched by the famous Petit Théâtre de Bouvard in Paris and they were to mark a whole French generation by their sense of derision, making them the new stars of comedy. Television smiled upon them (they made eight specials which were all wildly successful), their parodic songs sold like hotcakes (“Auteuil Neuilly Passy”, “Isabelle a les yeux bleus”) and their repartees entered into the spoken language (“Stéphanie de Monacoooo…”) More recently, the three comrades have chosen the vehicle of films to express themselves, there too with a huge popular success. (“Les Trois Frères”, “Les Rois mages”). But behind this brilliant career several secret dramas have occurred: repeated separations, a disagreement with their manager, a trial about the exploitation rights etc. The price to be paid for fame. A look at the secret story of the most famous of the Unknowns, the“Inconnus,” (and the funniest) in France. BRUNO SOLO AND YVAN BOLLOC’H: A DUO OR NOTHING! These two met on a television set and haven’t been out of each other’s company since: presented to the public during a program moderated by Le Bolloc’h, Bruno Sol was noticed for his sense of improvisation and ended up as co-moderator of the show. Since then, the duo of Bruno (the little funny one) and Yvan (the tall dark handsome one) has scored a bull’s-eye The sketches that they wrote for television led them most naturally to the sitcom and in 2001 they wrote together the first episodes of “Camera Café,” a rare example of a funny successful French series. There too it’s their complementary nature which makes us laugh: Bruno Solo is the ornery deceitful union member, Yvan Le Bolloc’h the conventional executive, not really too bright. Together they do a pastiche of the failings and pettiness of office workers. Result: 4 million French are in front of their televisions every evening…Such a success that a full length film version is in the works. JOSE GARCIA, HILARIOUS AT ALL COSTS It’s on the set of “Nulle part Ailleurs” (Nowhere else) along with Antoine de Caunes that José Garcia demonstrates every evening the scope of his mad-cap personality: outrageous make-up, wearing the most fantastic of wigs, ready to take on any disguise. With equal audacity, he can become a giant bee or a pudgy Marilyn Monroe. He was at once offered film roles in which he can express his loudmouth personality: from “La Vérité si je mens” to “Boulet”, José Garcia is grandiose, vociferous, enraged and hilariously funny, bringing to French cinema a rare energy and exuberance. His last film, “Rire et châtiment” which was directed by his wife offers him a role made to measure, that of a flamboyant joker whose permanent sketches make his friends scream with laughter—die laughing! Story of the inevitable rise to stardom of one of the most important actors of his generation. ELIE & DIEUDONNE: FEUDING BROTHERS? They have known fame together, the little white one and the big black one, playing on their differences, writing their sketches on table edges without even taking the time to rehearse them. They seemed inseparable. And yet…. “Elie & Dieudonne en garde à vue” (Elie & Dieudonne in police custody) in 1996 was the last show they did together: in conflict for reasons they prefer to keep secret, Elie and Dieudonné have split. Worse, they avoid each other, compete against each other and make well-placed cutting remarks to one another on the television sets. What are the exact reasons for their split? Why such a secret after years of complicity? Is there a chance that we will see them again together on stage?