2023-08-02 17:35:16
We knew he had a sense of humor and was facetious, but the location of the meeting surprised our expectations. The people gazettes said he was passing through Paris, but the genius has been traveling incognito since Will Smith, who played him at the cinema in a successful remake of the Disney cartoon, slapped a presenter at the Oscars last year. “I am likened to him. However, this violence is not in my temperament. My own weapon is humor », he recalled in one of his rare recent speeches. Exuberant, yes, he is, but not aggressive. Genius has known too well the torments of servitude to allow himself to be chained to human passions.
So the genius is discreet. No press officer, no postal or e-mail address, no cell phone: he has been free as the air since he was freed from the lamp by his friend Aladdin. It will therefore have been necessary to deploy all the diplomacy in the world to send him the interview request for The cross via his friend Eric Goldberg. Met at the last Annecy Animation Film Festival, this veteran of the Disney studios, with the curvaceous physique of a jovial cartoon character, knows him well. It was he who drew it and brought it to life in the 1992 cartoon, where it bursts the screen and steals the show from Aladdin and Princess Jasmine.
Eric Goldberg’s email gave just the time and place of the meeting: La Plaza Baghdad, a flea market in Saint-Ouen, on a Sunday morning in July. Right in front of an antique dealer of oriental furniture! Would the genius want to hunt? Once inside, none of the counter pillars resemble the blue-skinned rowdy. The well peppermint tea, ordered while waiting for the star, provokes three sneezes. ” Bless you ! »exclaims the genie, who suddenly appeared in front of us.
Quite proud of his effect and his joke, he bursts out laughing. “The same please, it looks strong and I like it!” »he asks the boss. “Sorry for this untimely arrival, but it was too tempting! »apologizes with a dazzling smile the genius, whose appearance contrasts with his temperament.
Flying carpet to freedom
Light, ample and clear jacket, linen trousers and brown sneakers: everything in her appearance seeks to hide her impressive build and her skin tone, with bluish reflections. His face is devoured by a full but well-trimmed beard and sunglasses. Only a ponytail protrudes from his clear cap.
When asked if he arrived on his magic carpet, he laughs again. “Hey no! He too has regained his freedom, and that’s good! Being your own master is more wonderful than all the magic and all the treasures in the world, as my character says in the cartoon. I can’t thank Disney enough for finally portraying me as I am in real life and not just as a slave in service of the will of my masters. We have trampled under foot for too long the first of human rights, the one for which the women of Iran are fighting today and which you have inscribed at the top of your national motto, he said in perfect French, tinged with a slight oriental accent. I learned by reading your great poets, when I was a prisoner of that accursed loupiote. I had time…”
He takes a sip of tea, then suspends his cup in the air, looks towards the horizon and recites in a serious tone: ” God ! the sepulchral voice / Of the Djinns! What a noise they make! / Let’s flee under the spiral / From the deep staircase. / My lamp is already extinguished, / And the shadow of the banister, / Which crawls along the wall, / Climbs to the ceiling…” Another burst of laughter. “It’s Victor Hugo (1). It’s beautiful, okay, but you think I have a sepulchral voice, do you? As for lamps, I tend to run away from them. »
“Orientalist stereotypes”
About his origins, we will not know more, the genius dodging the questions about his ancestors of supernatural essence and malevolent nature that describe the Arabian mythology then the Islamic tradition. “Don’t believe in these superstitions, come on! Sure, I have a few gifts, but I’m flesh and blood, like you.”he is indignant, beating his chest. “If you sting us, don’t we bleed?” / If you tickle us, don’t we laugh? »he declaims again, quoting the famous lines of the monologue of Shylock, the Jewish moneylender of the Merchant of Venice of Shakespeare who rebels against anti-Semitic prejudices.
What does he think, moreover, of this warning now appearing at the beginning of the Disney cartoon on the “orientalist stereotypes” conveyed in the film? “It’s true that there were two or three things that were out of place, especially this verse of the song Arabian Nights describing “a country where they cut off your ear if your head isn’t theirs, it’s barbaric, but that’s the way it is”.But the criticisms about the skin color of the voice performers are ridiculous! What better actor could I have dreamed of than Robin Williams to play my character? »
He smiles at the mention of the American comedian, who ended his life in 2014. “I got to know him a lot, we spent a few nights together drinking tea and smoking shisha. We did imitation contests: he imitated very well Jack Nicholson, Arnold Schwarzenegger and the French accent. Legend has it that I was a shapeshifter, but he was the shapeshifting genius! » He suddenly darkened. “Like all great comedians, he had his dark side. He was plagued by several diseases and no medicine or magic could have cured him. I am sometimes unable to grant certain wishes…”
A god of humor
Is it true, since he broaches the subject of his powers, that he was asked to settle the conflict in the Middle East? “There are problems that only men can solve, by talking to each other, by learning from each other, by understanding that what brings them together is stronger than what separates them. The cave of which I was a prisoner is for me an allegory of the fight between obscurantism and the Enlightenment, between ignorance and knowledge.he philosophizes, getting up, proposing to go to the flea market, while continuing the conversation.
Practicing, the genius is and does not hide it. He is also looking for a prayer rug. “The only one who makes me fly to God!” »he laughs. “I believe in a human and compassionate god, who would also have his flaws and weaknesses, like us. But also humor! » In one of the shops, we come across a rare copy of an album ofIznogoud. “The vizier who wanted to be caliph instead of the caliphhe laughs. It reminds me of another…” Allusion to the terrible vizier Jafar, whose disney legend says that his excessiveness led him to become the slave of the lamp.
While reading the comic, the genius, hilarious, launches into a series of witty and funny stories that the 24 pages of this diary could not all contain. “Do you know the one in this Sufi tale? It is my favorite. The caliph has just died. A beggar sits on his throne, triggering the vizier’s wrath. “I am above the caliph”, quietly states the beggar. “What are you talking about, wretch? Above the caliph, there is the Prophet!”, shouts the vizier. “I am above the Prophet,” continues the beggar. “But above the Prophet there is God!”, shouts the vizier. “I am above God,” replies the beggar. “Blasphemy! Above God, there is nothing!” yells the vizier. “Exactly,” said the beggar, “I am nothing.” »
When it’s time to leave, we come across a shelf full of old oil lamps tarnished by time. He then gives the junk dealer advice on how to clean them. “You have to rub well so that it shines and then, he said winking, you never know, something could come out of it! »
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At the origins of the character
This portrait of the genius was made from various sources:
The animated movie Aladdin, by John Musker and Ron Clements, released in 1992. American actor Robin Williams lends his voice to the genius character (Richard Darbois in the French version), which is animated by the talented Eric Goldberg. two suites, Jaf’s Returnar (1994) et Aladdin and the King of Thieves (1996), were released but only on video. A spin-off television series also aired in 1995.
The Arab-lost counts Aladdin or the marvelous lampwhich does not originally appear in the Tales of a thousand and one nightsbut which was associated with them in its translation into French in the 18th century by Antoine Galland (full text edited by Librio, 176 p., €2).
Guy Ritchie’s movie Aladdin, released in 2019, is a remake of the cartoon, in which the genius is played by Will Smith (dubbed in French by Anthony Kavanagh). A sequel is planned but without the American actor, due to the controversy that followed his stunt at the Oscars.
#Aladdins #genie #cultureloving #witty