02 Jan
02Jan

When the voice of Amédée, whose real name was Philippe de Chérisey, fell silent on July 17, 1985, far from falling into oblivion or indifference, he continued to reason, reproduced by the radio, in his texts: ramblings around a romantic theme “Hair – Imaginary interview with Jules Sandeau”, and in those of authors such as Robert Pinget, Norge or Roland Dubillard. This voice was made for storytelling. Sometimes hesitant, but warm and deep, a little flaky, he never ceased to amaze, with the funny situations he suggested and the side roads he led [us down?].

From the abundance of words and ideas, the originality of a tasty, inventive and curious work emerged. In recent years, we remembered that he had played in Belgium - at the theatre, at the Jacques Franck Centre in “Axel” by Villiers de l’Isle-, Adam, at the Théâtre de Poche in “There will always be a corpse between us” by Xobo-Obe - At the cinema, in a film by Michel Jakar on “La Malibran”. He had played in France in Paris, at the theatre in “The Panties of a Young Poor Woman” by Carl Sternheim at the Théâtre Saint-Georges”, in “Bain de vapor” by Roland Dubillard at the Théâtre de l'Atelier; at the cinema in the film “The Recalcitrant Gardener” by Jean-Claude Carrière and Maurice Failevic.

This handsome actor, we would no longer see on stage, but he left behind him, by Grégoire and Amédée “Book for Sale” written with his friend Roland Dubillard, republished by Jean-Claude Simoën in 1977, and other texts: “Dictionary for the defence and illustration of the diaeresis in the French language”, essays in which he invited the reader on a fabulous journey through time, a source of infinite reveries. There were questions about the “Memoirs of the Centaur Chiron” whose mother Philyra was transformed into a lime tree. (Cf. “the metamorphoses” of Ovid), - of the passage of the zero meridian in “the animals of Saint-Martin” - a wonderful bestiary, where the donkey, the bear, the ox, the tree frog, the bee follow one another, the dove, the goose and the halcyon to illustrate the legend of the apostle of the Gauls whose “charity” or the sharing of the mantle which took place in front of the Gemini Gate, in Amiens, inspired numerous artists, and a biography of BALZAC, and accelerated deadly time by Edgar Allan Poe in “Double Murder in the Rue Morgue”. - his fascination with numbers, formal beauty (from the plane to the three-dimensional), dice, checkerboards, chessboards, tarot, goose games, labyrinths, which he describes in “my memoirs of a donkey” [1].

Unusual, his long silhouette, his nonchalant gait and his words - where the taste for facetiousness shines through. May his stories not be lost and this reminder arouse the desire to read them, discover and see them appear!


C. Ladsous July 2007


Notes by Rhedesium;

[1] un âne can also figuratively mean an ignorant and fooly person, idiot, moron. This would suit Cheriseys modus operandi ....and so the title would really be 'mes mémoires d’un âne' - My Memories of a Fool' perhaps? 


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