"Jack Lang, the beautiful role", on France 5: minister, mayor, deputy, director... eight decades of a dense existence, commented on by the person concerned

FRANCE 5 – FRIDAY, JUNE 20 AT 10:50 PM – DOCUMENTARY

Jack Lang was a professor of public law, the youngest dean (at 38) of the Nancy Law Faculty, an actor, theater director, event creator, Minister of National Education, and, above all, François Mitterrand's iconic Minister of Culture. It was in this position that he created the Fête de la Musique on June 21, 1982, the ^43rd edition of which is being held this year.

This popular success, which has transcended borders, should not make us forget that Jack Lang, filmed on the terrace of the Arab World Institute in Paris, which he still directs at the age of 85, was also elected mayor of Blois (1989-2000) and member of parliament (between 1986 and 2012). "I myself am overwhelmed by the multitude of things that I have been called upon to support or imagine," he comments, in voiceover. It is in this tone that Jack Lang will tell the story of Jack Lang in this documentary by François Jougneau with the apt title: "the beautiful role." A bias that deprives the film of the distance and nuances that the character would have required.

He will thus comment on multiple archives (the man is not stingy with interviews), passages from his very numerous letters – up to three daily letters to the President of the Republic! – and give the reply to Elsa Lepoivre, from the Comédie-Française . Eight decades of an exceptionally dense existence are thus retraced in a documentary which, without omitting private life, gives pride of place to his public life.

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