In the new adaptation of our irreducible Gauls, Philippe Katerine embodies Assurancetourix. He gives us his playlist. Careful, it gets wet!
Par Anne Sophie Jahn
Philippe Katerine plays the bard Assurancetourix in “Asterix and Obelix: the Middle Empire”.© Movie Poster
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Çay is, Asterix and Obelix: The Middle Kingdom, the long-awaited adaptation of the funny comic strip by Goscinny and Uderzo by Guillaume Canet, is finally in theaters! The budget is pharaonic (65 million euros), the cast, staggering (Gilles Lellouche, Vincent Cassel, Jonathan Cohen, Marion Cotillard, Pierre Richard, Big Flo and Oli, Angèle, McFly and Carlito, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Matthieu Chedid…) , promotion, uninterrupted. Before you are won over by Asterix and Obelix’s trip to China, or disappointed by its script, we interviewed the whimsical actor and singer Philippe Katerine – playing Assurancetourix, the tireless bard whose lyre dangerously tempts the weather – on his Gallic playlist…
- To prepare the magic potion
She is “an Ethiopian nun, pianist, in touch with the gods, magic”, describes Philippe Katerine. Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru was born in 1923 in Addis Ababa, into a wealthy family. Sent to a boarding school in Switzerland to continue her studies, she studied the violin. Back in Ethiopia, she became the official singer of Emperor Haile Selassie. She was then a prisoner in Italy, a student in Cairo, a recluse in Washington DC… Is it during all these trips that she drew the ingredients of her own magic potion: refined and melancholic melodies, with Ethio-jazz and blues? That of “Jerusalem” is as gentle as the delicate movement of a spoon in a cauldron. Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru will be 100 years old this year. Like Getafix?
“It takes a lot of rigor and mischief to move a menhir, like this incredible music”, observes Philippe Katerine about the joyful brothel of the barnyard of Léonore Boulanger and Jean-Daniel Botta baptized “Das Leben”, “life” in German, musical adaptation of a poem by Ernst Herbeck.
- Kick the ass of the Romans
For Philippe Katerine, Shay’s hit, “Jolie”, has “the power and the glory to humble any army”. The 30-year-old Belgian rapper, discovered by Booba, granddaughter of Congolese singer Tabu Ley Rochereau, niece of rapper Youssoupha, made a name for herself with her first hardcore hip-hop album, pretty bitch. The Romans better watch out!
- Roast wild boar
Benjamin Epps is one of the rap revelations of the year. He is even the first French-speaking rapper to win the trophy for best international flow at the BET Awards, a prestigious American award – the class (we are also very surprised that he did not pass the second selection of the Victoires de la Musique , but let’s move on). With his somewhat old school beats and “his highly recognizable phrasing, he speaks to us of a wild boar’s hunger”, notes Philippe Katerine. Settled in France, of Gabonese origin, at 26, while working on his first album, he is not nearly satisfied. “Aren’t you happy?” It’s the same. »
We’ve all seen it in the series Ten percent, where he made us die of laughter with his precious and delicate humor. The actor Nicolas Maury has also released a disc of French songs, Limoges Porcelain, from which these “Premices” are taken, “for the most refined and romantic banquet that we have known among the Gauls”, assures Philippe Katerine. A fragile slow to rock until sunrise in Armorica.
You know, let Assurancetourix, your favorite bard, sing, and any banquet will end up flooded. “The heavens are singing in the hollow of your ears”, defends Philippe Katerine about his favorite song to make the rain fall “Please Help Me I’m Falling”, by the country duo The Everly Brothers. Storm alert!