This is the fifth in a new series of “Getting to Know”  Pages from Ultimate Movie Rankings.com.   Our interview this time around is with UMR Hall of Famer Laurent.   Laurent has been visiting our websites for almost 10 years now.  He is a Top 15 Commentor.   Laurent is a member of the Class of 2015 UMR Hall of Fame. So we figured it was time to learn a little more about Laurent.

Cogerson –  It has always interested me in knowing which thespian made the first impact on a person. Who was the French and American first actor or actress that you knew by their actual name? 

Laurent–  They were Jean-Alexis Moncorgé aka Jean Gabin and Archibald Leach, more famous as Cary Grant.

Cogerson – Cary Grant is one of my Top 3 actors, while I have not heard of Jean Gabin.  As I was looking for photos to attach here, I did think a few times he reminded me of Spencer Tracy.

Laurent – Surprised that you do not know Jean Gabin. He had a love affair with Marlene Dietrich during the Second World War when he was in the USA (where he played in some films) between 1941 and 1942, when he left to join Michèle Morgan at the origin ( they were lovers). Then he left for the 1943 front until the end of the war.

After the war, Marlene followed him to France for some time. He was one of the 5 biggest stars of French cinema. He was widely known in Argentina, Italy, Germany, and Spain, among others. Also in the USA, a little. Your comparison with Spencer Tracy is fair enough. Like him, Gabin was not tall but had a very strong presence on the screen. There was something animal about his game, like Tracy. He often played the roles of badass, but with a certain nobility, not attacking the weak.

Cogerson – Is there a person in your life that pushed you down the path of liking movies?  For me, it was my parents and my grandmother.

Laurent – Yes, my father. He was a fan of American classics movies, and a real cinéma lover. I’ll tell you a story.

In 1977, a famous french singer, Eddy Mitchell, sing la Dernière séance (the last session). It’s a melancholy song who tells the story of the last screening of an old neighborhood cinema before it’s destroyed. Five years later, Eddy Mitchell launches a TV show named “la Dernière Séance”. This monthly show is going on a little cinema, with spectators, and the concept is two American classic movies of the 1940s and 1950’s (only popular cinema, adventure movie and western principally). Between each, two old cartoons (a lot of Tex Avery’s cartoons), old publicitys and Mitchell who told anecdotes about the films broadcast.

This show was a great success and became a cult for my generation. But for me, it was very important. At the time, I was 8 years old, and my father was little at home because of his work schedules, but every first Tuesday of the month, my father and me, watched this show. It was the only time I had the right to stay up at night. Later, we had a lot of conversations about movies.

Cogerson – As a child in France (I am assuming you grew up there) which did you watch American or French movies.  How quickly did you realize many of the movies you were watching were from another country?

Laurent –  Effectively, I grew up in France. My father loved American classics movies and naturally, we watched a lot of American movies. On French TV, a lot of movies showed at the time were french, of course, but when I was 8 years old, in 1982, my father bought a magnetoscope. From there, we started to watch a lot of American films. Long live VHS! Lol.

Cogerson –  Who is your favorite actor or actress of all-time? 

Laurent – It’s hard to say. For the French, Jean Gabin and Jean-Paul Belmondo. For the Americans, Tom Cruise and Leonardo Di Caprio among the current actors. Cary Grant and John Wayne among the classics. I think Wayne is maybe my favorite, for all that he represents. I mean, John Wayne! He was the symbol of western, the hero archetype. he is the epitome of cinema and Hollywood.

Cogerson –  What are your Top 3 movies of all-time? Or share as many as you are willing to share.

Laurent – Oh ! It’s very hard for me to select only 10 movies. But I will try :  Stagecoach, the Godfather, Jaws, Lawrance of Arabia, the Great Escape, Inception, Interstellar (almost every Nolan’s movies in fact^^), the Thing by Carpenter, Titanic, Terminator, Jaws, Gladiator, le salaire de la Peur (also know as Wages of Fear in USA, I believe), The Deer Hunter, Once Upon a Time in West, Year of the Dragon, ,Casablanca, Bringing Up Baby, la Grande Illusion and Quai des Brumes with Jean Gabin and Michèle Morgan.

Cogerson – Great movies! Surprised The Year of the Dragon is listed among all those great movies. I loved that movie. I actually saw it in theaters. Not many people can  make that claim/

Cogerson –  Ever had the chance to meet any movie stars in person?

Laurent-  One time, in Lyon (second biggest city of France), in a restaurant, I ate two tables from Pierre Richard. I don’t know if you know, but he was one of the greatest French stars of the 1970s and 1980s. He was also famous in Europe and Russia. But I didn’t dare disturb him to speak to him or ask him for an autograph.

Cogerson – Have you visited the United States?  If you came to the United States today…what famous movie location would you like to visit?  For example maybe The Empire State Building…also known as King Kong’s toy. 

Laurent–  I have never had the opportunity to go to the USA, but if I could, I would dream of seeing Monument Valley. John Ford is one of my two favorites classics directors, with Howard Hawks

Cogerson – Do you have any memorable movie experiences?   I remember seeing Porky’s in theaters.  People were laughing so hard, I thought the walls might crumble.

Laurent –   Two. In 1982 (yes, it was really a founding year for my love of cinema), my father took me to see Rocky III. During the last fight between Rocky and Clubber Lang, the audience in the theater was very hot and people were screaming “go on Rocky”, “demolish him”, some were even standing. At the end of the fight, people chanted “Rocky Rocky Rocky” as in the movie. It was completely crazy.

Another memorable experience, is when I saw Dance with Wolves. After the end of the movie, there was a long silence. Nobody moved. Then, clap clap clap, then the whole room rises and cheered for several minutes.  I only saw the audience cheering in a movie theater three or four other times, but it was the only time I attended a standing ovation.

Cogerson – When I went to the USC library, back in 2016, to get the WB ledgers numbers….you were a part of that…..as we were sharing lots of information before the visit and after the visit.  I remember using your information on the plane coming home.  Do you still have that info and what did you end up doing with that info.

Laurent –  Of course I still have this data! And, again, a great thanks for giving them to me. Recently (last Friday), I created a blog with my little muscled fingers (where I thank you), and, for example, my James Cagney’s page contains WB ledger’s data.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank WoC for this valuable advice about scraping. It took me a while to understand, but in the end, it helped me a lot and saved a lot of time in processing all my documents and data.

Here is the link to my blog if you are interested. And if I dared, I would ask you to publish it on your site if you agree, of course.  http://www.boxoffice-retro.com/

Cogerson – And finally.  I know it has been a while, but do you remember how you discover our little website?

Laurent – Your little website? I would like my blog to be as small as yours, Lol. I discovered your UMR in 2012 on Hubpages.com, and I naturally followed you on your own site since then.