Gad Elmaleh

View PDF | Print View
by: Article Knowledgebase
Total views: 78
Word Count: 529

By Maha Khatib

Jewish and Moroccan, speaking Arabic as well as French and Hebrew, Gad Elmaleh is "very proud" of his origins and his mixed culture. Without speaking English, Gad (name adopted by his fans) leaves at 17 years its native sunny country, Morocco, for the cold Quebec. He hopes to realize there, like all young people, the great American dream. He spends 4 years in Montreal where he follows political studies and an initiation to the theatre.

In 1992, at 22 years, he decides to go to Paris, the art capital, to become a real artist. He studies with Isabelle Nanty with whom he does, in 1995, his first one-man show "Décalages". Interpreted in the famous "palais des glaces", the show is an autobiography of Gad. He describes in it his stay in Montreal and his life in Paris. We never finish laughing at his famous expressions: "Bonjour, bienvenue au Canada, j'vais checker votre visa. "or "Revenons à nos moutons". The roles of grand-father Baba Yahia or Aderhazak El Merharaoui have also strongly marked us. In two words, we never wearied of seeing again this spectacle.

Gad is then devoted to the cinema and plays his first full-length film: "Salut cousin !" of Merzak Allouache. The performance of Gad Elmaleh is undeniable and makes the essence of the film. Our Gad excelles also in dramatic roles as in "L'Homme est une femme comme les autres" or "Train de Vie".

His notoriety increases even more with the frank successes of his second one-man show: "La Vie Normale" and the film "La Vérité si je mens !" where he plays the role of Dov, the seducer. The fans of Gad like also to repeat some extracts of "La Vie Normale" like the famous: "Ecoute, ton père n'est pas Rotschild!". The personage of Chouchou in "La Vie Normale" is reproduced in the comedy "Chouchou", directed by Merzak Allouache and where Gad plays with Alain Chabat. The role of gay that Gad Elmaleh interprets in this film is so well played that one can easily thinks that it is true... We can see in this film some traditions of North Africa such as the baths Moors... Gad also sings the well-known North African song "WELAWLIYA", which made laugh Moroccans, Algerians, etc.

Contrarily to his two first one-man shows, "L'autre c'est moi", DVD in 2005, contains more improvisation and interaction with the public. Gad Elmaleh said in one of his interviews that this one-man show is more in the tradition of the stand up.

Concerning his private life, for curious like me, two sentences: Gad marries in 2001 Roxane of Gerard Depardieu in Cyrano of Bergerac: Anne Brochet. One boy was born from this union: Noah. Currently, Gad lives with the prima ballerina Aurélie Dupont.

To crown all successes of Gad, the French culture minister Renaud DonneDieu de Vabres gives him in January 2007 the nomination of "Chevalier des Arts et des lettres". As if that was not enough, Gad is also elected " personnalité la plus drôle de France " in January 2007. Finally, for somebody who dreamed of being a good artist he didn't miss the coach...
 

About the Author

Maha Khatib is the author and the main editor of Gad Elmaleh.info. People in over sixty countries each month visit her site for news about this moroccan artist: Gad Elmaleh Spectacles, Gad Elmaleh Filmographie, so on...

Comments