Claude Ventura Interview | Alex Gilbert #281

French TV director Claude Ventura, and collaborator of Italics, stirred controversy in 1970 with Les Charlots à l’Assemblée, leading to a six-month suspension of Tous en scène. In 2005, he realizes a documentary on Guy Peelaert’s use of appropriation and détournement strategies. In 2008, a re-release of Cinéma, Cinémas encountered legal challenges related to film and music rights, nearly resulting in its cancellation. In 2025, he decided to re-appear in a Rembobina documentary on Jean Michel Folon, honored at the Third Edition of the Arles Drawing Festival.

I published an article in Le Nouvel Observateur and gave hours of excerpts from Italics to the Madelen platform. Was it Richard Poirot who called you ?
Claude Ventura: He’s the one who does the short segment at the end, right?

Yes, did you get along with my father ?
Claude Ventura: Yes, I even said on the show he initiated that program and got me to make the film on Jacques-Henri Lartigue. Our relationship was not bad — not especially close, but not a bad one either.

You said he started Italics, where Folon began.
Claude Ventura: Yes, well, I said that — I was honest. There’s no mystery about that.

Well, there is a mystery. Jacques Chancel, in the Dictionnaire amoureux de la télévision, says he did.
Claude Ventura: Well, that’s not me. That’s for sure. I didn’t choose the other stuff that goes with the film I made for Marc. I didn’t choose those segments.

How did you meet Marc Gilbert?
Claude Ventura: He must’ve seen something I did and called me. I remember we did Oskar Morgenstern, and we went together. That’s it. I’m sorry. It was 1973. That’s nearly 60 years ago.

But what were you doing that year?
Claude Ventura: I was a director. I made rock shows. A show called Pop 2. He introduced me to Folon. I didn’t know him before. It was thanks to Marc.

Who contacted you?
Claude Ventura: Anne Le Boulch. That wasn’t my decision. I hadn’t seen him since 1973. I understand you’re investigating your father’s life. I get it, I admire that. I’ve told you all I know. That’s it. You told me he committed suicide. I didn’t even know that. Look, I didn’t make Rembobina. I didn’t even remember the Folon film. I didn’t suggest doing it. I specifically told Patrick Cohen that Italics was Marc Gilbert’s. I’ve been honest. But I don’t know what they kept in the final edit. I was never a journalist.

You were involved in the summer documentary attached to the first talk show: Italics. American-style, on a set. A format copied many times.
Claude Ventura: Yes, but I just did my job as a director on three Marc Gilbert documentaries. You got two photos of him from Princeton. I spoke about him on Rembobina. I didn’t request this program. I didn’t even remember the Folon film. Talk shows don’t interest me. I make films. I make documentaries. I liked the first two. The third bored me a bit. Lartigue was fine. Not the one on the game theory guy, Oscar Morgenstern.

Did you meet Oppenheimer?
Claude Ventura: No, not me.

OK, but you were part of a historic moment — Ennio Morricone lending music for the first time to French TV, Folon appearing for the first time.
Claude Ventura: That’s your fight. That’s your job. I don’t give a damn if Morricone gave music for the first time. Yes, people say it’s beautiful — OK. But that’s not my problem. There wasn’t Morricone music in my film.

The theme from the documentary is Ennio Morricone, from A to Z. How can you not know ?
Claude Ventura: I haven’t rewatched the film. They only show the beginning and end tags. I didn’t watch a single minute. To me, it wasn’t a turning point. Talk shows aren’t my thing. I prefered Averty’s programs, Bouton rouge, Seize millions de jeunes.

And the fact that Volume introduced Moebius, Druillet, Graton, Charlier, Franquin, Sempé, cybernetic art, Pierre Schaeffer, GRM, the roots of Metal Hurlant and Cyberpunk ?.
Claude Ventura: Folon wasn’t comic art. I don’t recall any comics with scripts and all that. He was nice, I liked what he did, but nothing especially. He was a friend of 20 years. I liked the guy.