Encore, Johnny

Johnny Hallyday made his 90th appearance on the cover of Paris-Match this week. His first was in 1963. He died in 2017, of course, and around a million people turned out in the streets of the French capital to watch his funeral cortège go by. The reason for his reappearance on the magazine’s cover is the announcement of a new biopic, Johnny, to be directed by Cédric Jimenez, with Benjamin Voisin, so brilliant as Meursault in François Ozon’s recent The Stranger, in the title role (and on the latest cover). Noée Abita and Nina Meurisse will play Sylvie Vartan and Nathalie Baye respectively — Johnny’s wives during the period on which the film concentrates, from the ’60s to the ’80s. Marie Colomb is cast as the singer Nanette Workman, with whom he had a tumultuous affair in the ’70s. Rather poignantly, Laura Smet, Johnny’s daughter, plays her own grandmother, Huguette, whom she never met. Shooting starts this summer and a release is promised for early 2017. We’re assured that the cars, the clothes, the guitars and the cigarettes (Gitanes) will all be period-correct. It might be good. Peut-être, peut-être pas. Nice to be reminded of him, anyway.