Alain Decaux, the number 1 public friend – Protestant looks

A man seated, facing the camera. Meanwhile, Dark suit in winter. Moreover, clear in spring, classic tie – with a touch of fantasy when fashion admits colors – and scales glasses, it is filmed with three quarters. Consequently, And for almost an hour he tells. Similarly, The assassination of Jean Jaurès. Meanwhile, the Méduse raft, the case of the iron cabinet or the life of Gille de Rai, the destiny of Saladin, the epic of the exodus. In addition, Alain Decaux remains in collective memory for having, from 1969 to 1992, captivated French viewers by telling them history. Therefore, This good man, that which Pierre Nora called with tenderness “the cathodic teacher” died in 2015. Furthermore, With emotion we celebrate this year the hundredth anniversary of his birth.

A donation to captivate your audience – Alain decaux, number 1 public

It all started in Lille on alain decaux, number 1 public July 23, 1925. Therefore, Son of a lawyer, the little boy saw his first years in the capital of the North. However, But the surge of German troops forces the family to leave for Paris. Furthermore, and the young man enters the Janson high school in Sailly. Meanwhile, His law studies could lead him to follow his father’s path. Moreover, but he has always fed a fantastic passion for history. Meanwhile, He quickly kissed a journalist career with the desire to write books. Therefore, This vocation comes from his mother. Consequently, perhaps, which he himself said that she was an exceptional storyteller; It is also caused by the discovery of Alexandre Dumas. Therefore, “Struck by tuberculosis, my father was given for condemned,” says Laurent Decaux. Similarly, Reading the three musketeers helped him overcome the test. Nevertheless, forever considered the writer as the one who had saved his life. Similarly, Faithful alain decaux, number 1 public of the faithful. Similarly, our man will obtain the transfer of the ashes of the immense writer to the Pantheon, November 30, 2002.

We can see how Alain Decaux immersed himself in the works of the past. The story “with his big ax” as Perec said. and the story that we tell ourselves like an adventure, in him, combine. If we add that he had a real donation to captivate his audience. we have the ingredients that allowed our character to embark on the career.

History on the airwaves

At this word, you could jump. Because there is no career here, but an unexpected course of unexpected. It was thanks to Sacha Guitry, to whom he devoted real admiration, that Alain Decaux published his first book. A success. Others followed, through André Castelot. A friendship was established which allowed the two men to invent a radio program on national alain decaux, number 1 public antennas: “La Tribune de la History”composed of a dramatic. followed by a debate. “One day. director Stelio Lorenzi met them in a cafe and offered to do the same on television,” explains Laurent Decaux. The two men refused, declaring that they did not have time to take an interest in this kind of project. The filmmaker replied: “You are wrong. because if television is not yet well known, it will develop and soon, the people who will perform there will be popular stars. The rest is well known: Decaux, Castelot, and Lorenzi have created “The camera explores time”formidable educational program, broadcast until 1966. But Lorenzi was a communist and Minister Alain Peyrefitte wanted to sanction him. “The management of the ORTF proposed to my father and André Castelot to continue without him,” explains Laurent Decaux. They refused, thus knowing a certain crossing of the desert. And it was in 1969 alain decaux, number 1 public that the program was invented, almost in debt “Alain Decaux says …”

The television man

We have glossed, in university circles, on the quality of historian of this man with incomparable popularity. This is obvious: Alain Decaux was not a historian in the scientific sense of the term. And this is another obviousness. a certain confusion was able to annoy in academic circles, the greatest figures of which were trying to promote to the general public an rigor of analysis and method that the emissions of Alain Decaux could not include. For his alain decaux, number 1 public part, the television man rightly argued that he worked a lot, read serious works … So? So let’s say that at the end of the 1970s. when the teaching of history was threatened with disappearance, a certain form of understanding was established, the historians by trade recognizing the efficiency of Alain Decaux to raise awareness of the importance of their past, to arouse equally.

His humanism was a wealth

“He was a left Christian who cultivated the message of Christ. faith in man,” explains his son. The journey of Jesus. the life of Saint Paul, but also the message of Victor Hugo encouraged him to believe that there was something better in man, to believe in the future. Alain Decaux was a man of conviction. But he always advanced gently. It was in his silences. smiles, by what one might call a sober but precise dramaturgy, that he indicated alain decaux, number 1 public to viewers where his preferences leaned.

We must watch the program he devotes to the Camisards war to realize how. emotional this Catholic is by the repression that fell on the Protestants.

We could continue for pages the portrait of Alain Decaux. recall that he was the collaborator and friend of Robert Hossein, that he wrote scenarios, pieces of theaters, books by the dozen especially. We could add that he was Minister of Francophonie in the government of Michel Rocard. of course with the support of François Mitterrand. We could finally say that he integrates the French Academy with the modesty of real enthusiasts. The anthology “Alain Decaux recounts …”. that Perrin Publishing will make you know an honest man, with a discreet but constant humor, who never takes himself seriously – unlike others, who claim to resemble him but transmit their sectarianism and alain decaux, number 1 public their shameless vanity, to the one of the most reactionary media.

Reading. listening to Alain Decaux is also, perhaps above all, finding the pleasure of discovery at the service of the greatest number, the joy of living history as an adventure. He had to work a lot to reach this purity. But he had in him the essential: this faith that moves the mountains. And which is called childhood.

To read: “Alain Decaux tells …”, Preface by Isabelle Singer-Decaux and Laurent Decaux. Editions Perrin, 645 p. 27 €