To discover Club 13, the discreet kingdom of Claude Lelouch, at number 15 Avenue Hoche, in Paris, very close to Parc Monceau, you must first go through a wrought iron fence and then a glass door. To the right is Les Films 13, the offices of the filmmaker’s production company. Going down a long staircase, the visitor passes through a restaurant and a reception room. Even further down you reach the club’s famous screening room. Again, a staircase, at the foot of which there are editing rooms, another projection room, while photographs and posters of the French director’s films are displayed on the walls.
When Claude Lelouch acquired Club 13 in the late 1960s with money made from the worldwide success ofA man and a woman, Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1966, Oscar for best foreign film and best original screenplay the following year, he dreamed of a movie theater, like the studios and production offices built by Jean-Pierre Melville in an old garage on 25 bis of rue Jenner, in Paris, at 13my city.
“I wanted to create a work tool for myself, to make my films wherever I wanted and whenever I wanted. I turned fifty-one, without realizing it, thanks to the success ofTO man and a woman “, says the director, who has just celebrated his 87th anniversarymy birthday and is about to release his new movie, Eventuallywith Kad Merad.
13, your lucky number
When he bought it, at 15 Avenue Hoche, it might have been a private mansion, but above all it was a ruin. We had to tear down the basements, chase away the rats, bring life to a ghost place. Claude Lelouch wanted to build his estate, 1,000 square meters on four levels, in the golden triangle of the Champs-Elysées, then the center of gravity of French cinema. The largest cinemas in the capital were located there, as well as the most important production companies and talent agencies.
Ideally, the building would have been located on 13th Avenue, the director’s lucky number. One of his sailboats was called Friday the 13th. Claude Lelouch’s first and last name add up to thirteen letters. His year of birth, 1937, is a multiple of 13. Even his cell phone number ends in 13 (“a coincidence”, admits). When one of his films is released, it is usually the thirteenth day of the month. Eventuallyis no exception to the rule, as it hits the screens on November 13.
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