“I wanted to film the emotion of Florent Pagny on stage, the one who was going to live with the public who so wanted to see him again…” Michel Jankielewicz, the director of Florent Pagny: the phoenix, the documentary broadcast this Friday, September 1 on TF1 at 11:40 p.m., knows the singer well. He’s been his friend for 35 years… Last June and July, he was able to accompany him during the recording of his album 2 bis made up of covers of his duet hits with Zazie, Obispo, Slimane, Bruel, Kendji Girac, Anggun, Soprano… and throughout his summer tour in France, which marked his reunion with his fans after his fight against lung cancer, diagnosed in January 2022.

He drew an hour of unpublished images, where the interpreter of “Knowing how to love” tells himself with frankness, humor and simplicity: “Florent is in life as on TV. He makes the same comments on or off camera. There is no betrayal with him,” explains the director, who interviewed his accomplice at length for the purposes of the film. Which closes the special evening of the front page dedicated to the artist, which begins at 9:10 p.m. with the concert “With Florent Pagny, everyone ELA”, captured in June at the Musical Scene in Paris.

With Florent Pagny, Michel Jankielewicz is not at his first attempt. Last January, the director recounted the career of the sometimes contested singer in a first documentary Florent Pagny, a free man, which had gathered 4.2 million viewers on TF1. This time he wanted to address “the musical part of his life”. “I was in total immersion, with him, before, during and after his concerts. I watched him live with his friends, his family who followed him on the roads and his musicians. In those two months, he was reunited with “a combative man, who never talks about his health issues.” He settles them, that’s all. And I’m sure he’ll sort this one out eventually! “.

This character trait also inspired the title of this second project. Like the mythical bird, the artist never ceases to “resurrect”. “Florent has had great ups and downs. But he always gets up, explains Michel Jankielewicz. For me, it’s a phoenix. He will always look for this strength that he has in him. He is the master of his life. He knows what he wants, he does what it takes to get there. He never gives up.”

And what Florent Pagny wants is to find his voice, “this gift that we gave him” and that he pampers with large swigs of herbal teas before going on stage. It’s singing if not to forget his sorrows and illness, at least to commune with his audience, whose fervor he still marvels at: “You sent me so much love, I received so many messages from love that I honestly think that’s what made the story go so well for me, “he said, his voice tight with emotion, in Nîmes, where he entered the arena (es) (s) to inaugurate his tour…

A sequence among the most touching of this documentary which shows the man – sometimes fragile – beyond the star (or the imperturbable coach of The Voice), apparently so solid. This is undoubtedly where the strength of this documentary lies, where we discover a modest and sensitive man, who draws his strength from “his load-bearing walls”. His artist friends first – Zazie, Pascal Obispo, Patrick Bruel or even Slimane – with whom he recorded 2 bis (released on September 1), a disc composed only of duets. The same friends who joined him for the concert in favor of ELA, the European association against leukodystrophies. But also and above all his two grown children, Aël (23 years old) and Inca (26 years old), and his wife, Azucena, with whom we see him debriefing, relaxing or bickering between two performances.

“Florent draws his energy from his friends and family, as this title tells. He often says it, his songs are messages that he also addresses to himself. And its load-bearing walls are what is most important to him”, assures Michel Jankielewicz before adding: “In the same way, ‘Un jour, une femme’ recounts his love story more of thirty years with Azucena which represents the foundation of his life. And his main support when fatigue overwhelmed him after that first gig. Or when he doubts whether to convince the 25,000 young participants of a festival, not necessarily “come to see him” but who end up cheering him on. Another proof of the popularity of the singer with 15 million albums sold, whose hits have rocked our daily lives for 35 years.

It deserved a – another – documentary – however laudatory – to pay homage to him, pending his next return: “He will now fix himself up and take care of himself. But as he says, he still has plenty of projects. “Because he only knows and likes to sing…