Paul Mounet

Le nom de Paul Mounet reste indissociable de celui de son frère aîné, Mounet-Sully, dont il fut pendant plus de vingt-cinq ans, le partenaire à la Comédie-Française. Cette biographie –; la première à lui être consacrée –; se fonde notamment sur l'étude d'archives privées composées de plusieurs milliers de documents, tous inédits. Au-delà des clichés dont trop souvent on l'affuble, nous découvrons ici un homme de conviction, généreux, passionné et pudique, héros de la guerre de 1870, médecin et professeur d'art dramatique vénéré par ses élèves ; de surcroît acteur inspiré, au corps digne de la statuaire antique, au visage noble et expressif, à la belle voix persuasive, attaché à l'idéal d'" un art de profonde et large humanité ". Ses interprétations multiformes, d'une étonnante modernité, s'animent d'un lyrisme qu'il définit ainsi : non pas " fiévreuse gymnastique du larynx ", mais " élargissement de l'âme par la foi ". Au soir de sa vie, il confie à un proche : " Nous étions nés, nous les Anciens, sur une haute montagne ; de là-haut, nous parlions aux étoiles. " -- Paul Mounet's name remains indissociable from that of his older brother, Mounet-Sully, who was his partner for more than twenty-five years at the Comédie-Française. This biography –; the first ever devoted to him –; is based mainly on a study of private archives consisting of several thousand documents, none of which have ever been published before. Beyond the clichés which have too freely been applied to him, here we discover a man of conviction; generous, fervent and discreet; a hero of the Franco-Prussian War, a doctor and teacher of dramatic art revered by his pupils. But he was also an inspired actor, with a physique like an antique sculpture, a noble and expressive face and a beautiful persuasive voice, who was attached to the ideal of 'an art of deep and widespread humanity'. His astonishing modern, multiform interpretations were enlivened by a lyricism which he defined in this way: "Not 'feverish gymnastics of the larynx', rather 'the expansion of the soul through faith'.' In the evening of his life, he confided to a close friend: "We, the Ancients, were born atop a high mountain; from up there, we could converse with the stars.'