‘I like people who don't share
the same convictions we do.’
 

Posted on 19.10.2025

Journalist, writer and leading expert on French cinema, Olivier Barrot, the iconic host of the show Un livre, un jour on France 3, received the 2025 Raymond Chirat Prize during the Lumière film festival. At the Village, he elaborated on his career, especially his collaboration with Raymond Chirat, and mentioned his biography on Louis Jouvet, the subject of a retrospective at the festival.

© DR

You are primarily known as a film historian, but you wear many professional hats. What is your training and how would you define yourself first and foremost?

I see myself first and foremost as a journalist because, for me, it's a way of life. Journalism is a unifying force. My connection with Raymond Chirat is absolutely obvious. Despite the big age gap, he was perhaps my most intimate friend. Although he left us ten years ago, he had nurtured my taste for old classics, in black and white, heritage films of memories, remembrance, the past. It's this penchant for the past that brought us together, but not just in terms of cinema: for music and literature, too. I'm starting to think that I might describe myself first and foremost as a writer, but I'm not entirely convinced yet (laughs)!

Coming back to Raymond Chirat, he initiated me on facial recognition. He had an exceptional sense of storytelling, its detail and precision. He was an orator. Being an orator is a real profession.

As an anecdote, I met Raymond Chirat in 1971... That was a long time ago! I had been commissioned to write a book about a film and theatre actor, Jules Berry, who was completely unknown at the time. So there I was, on my way to Lyon, whereas I’d ride to the Cannes Film Festival in a two-horse carriage! That's when I met Raymond Chirat, and that's where our great friendship began, a friendship that only death could end. I thought I knew a little about Jules Berry, and when Raymond started talking to me about him, he asked me how many films I had seen featuring Berry... Just so you know, Jules Berry starred in more than 80 features. At that moment, I couldn't lie, especially to someone as knowledgeable as Raymond! I confessed... "I've seen three films." Needless to say, it took some work to catch up... But I managed to do it! 

After that, how did you decide to write books together, not only about cinema, but also about theatre?

I think Raymond Chirat knew French theatre almost as well as he knew cinema. He knew everything about the theatre realm, as well as about avant-garde theatre. Like him, I was passionate about the history of theatre in general. We loved actors, not only the celebrities, but also those in supporting roles. That was the inspiration behind Les Excentriques du cinéma français (1985), a book about supporting actors and secondary roles. So it was always actors who brought us together. I can still see myself listening to Raymond reading passages aloud to me (because he was also an exceptional reader) about actors who are not at all famous today. This first joint venture had us laughing ourselves silly!

How did these books come to exist: Les Excentriques du cinéma français, which has become a classic, and the other projects?

Raymond Chirat was a quiet, modest man who, paradoxically, doubted the relevance and interest of his work. He had handwritten index cards on all these actors, directors, screenwriters, thousands of people, which he had started compiling when he was ten years old. In fact, his handwriting never changed! These cards contained the entire history of French cinema. One day, I said to him, ‘You absolutely must share this!’

Bernard Chardère was one of the figures who convinced Raymond Chirat to publish the credits of French cinema. He played a very important role in Chirat's acceptance that these notes, taken himself, which he kept without any hope that they would amount to anything, were truly invaluable. Today, we refer to the as ‘catalogues’. Raymond was someone who lacked self-confidence. And then it became clear that this guy knew everything, or almost everything... In any case, more than others! He also enabled us to change the way we look at cinema today. His role, his memory and his personality remain.

Did you ask his advice on every book project then ask him to be your co-author? How were these collaborations coordinated?

It was very simple. Since we were very close, we talked. When I met him in the 1970s, don’t forget that there were no telephones. Back then, getting a telephone number was a Herculean task (laughs)! So we didn't call each other, we wrote to each other. In any case, Raymond was a man of letters. So we had a considerable correspondence. One day, a publisher made me an offer for a book called Inoubliables! (1986). It was the sequel to our first book. This time, we were more interested in forgotten stars (Charles Boyer, for example), actors who weren't very exposed. It was just the beginning of VHS, and of course there were no DVDs, and we didn't have access to video collections.  We had a simple method: he’d come to my house or I would go to his, and we would each write a part of the book, working in different rooms. At the end of the day, we’d read each other what we’d written. We had a good time!

You also enjoy travelling and have penned books on the subject. Could you elaborate a bit on that?

It’s one of the few points on which I disagreed with Raymond Chirat - he travelled very little: he was a homebody. For me, it's always been the opposite: I've had a desire to travel and escape since I was young. My parents had a world map on the wall of their apartment, and each country had its own colour. I was fascinated by the number of countries I could name, with their colours, and I always felt this kind of implicit calling.

There were names like ‘Paraguay’ that particularly appealed to me, I can't explain why. So I decided to pursue a career that would allow me to travel - I became a journalist and took a special interest in international reporting. That's how I came to work for Canal+, France Inter, and so on. I needed to accumulate visions, faces, cultures, languages... Everything attracted me.

By the way, I find that Namur in Belgium is just as exotic as Papua New Guinea. I like people who don't share the same beliefs as we do. With Canal+, I travelled around the world once a week. I'm exaggerating a little... but not by much! I could be in the Philippines one month and Finland the next.

What has always interested me, a deep feeling that has never left me: all women and men are born and remain free and equal, regardless of culture, religious differences... It sounds like the Declaration of Citizens’ Human Rights but I wholeheartedly believe in this. Men and women harbour the same fears, the same concerns and have the same enthusiasms. I am convinced we are all scared of death. Is war inevitable? I don't want to give a lecture on political science (laughs)! But in essence,  we are the same. And the desire to go and see what that ‘sameness’ looks like is something that has never left me.

How do you satisfy your love of cinema these days? Do you continue to discover classic films? Do you go to the cinema, or do you watch films at home, or both?

I watch far fewer films than I used to. I don't go to festivals much anymore, if at all... Except Lumière, of course! My personal enthusiasm is directed as much toward theatre as toward cinema. I've done a bit of theatre directing and I enjoy it. I've always loved actors.  Today, I'm trying to catch up on what I've missed in cinema, in terms of both recent and older films... But I watch far fewer foreign and recent films. I also spend a lot of time writing.

What can we say about Louis Jouvet in this year when we are celebrating him? Tell us about the book you wrote about him, Salut à Louis Jouvet (2002).

Louis Jouvet passed away in 1951. Raymond Chirat and I realised that there weren't many plans to honour him, even though he was a man of theatre and cinema. We wanted to write a short book, a kind of portrait of this man we liked so much... Jouvet always combined the realms of cinema and theatre in his professional life. Raymond and I wanted to divide the book into two parts, each dealing with one of the two arts. But because we had habits, cultural experiences and certain styles that could be confused, sometimes we couldn't remember who had written what. One of us devoted his part of the book entirely to cinema, and the other to theatre. So who did what? I'll let you find out...

Fanny Bellocq