I HAVE SOMETHING TO TELL YOU… MICHAEL DOUGLAS

Dear Michael Douglas,

As far back as I can remember you have been part of my life. As a child, it was my passion for TV series that made me meet you by watching a “production Quinn Martin“, The streets of San Franciscoin which you teamed up with veteran Karl Malden in the shoes of the inspector Steve Keller. You were already extremely charismatic and I believe I adored you instantly. Your familiar smile (a little family resemblance with your father Kirk that you have never been able, nor wanted to deny), your empathy, your benevolence, everything was already there in The streets of San Francisco and this during the four seasons you were the inspector Keller. But inevitably, you could not remain in the comfort of a series, as successful as it is. It took you two years after the series to land your first notable film, Suspicious deaths of Michael Crichton then you continued with The Chinese Syndrome of James Bridges And The winner of Steven Hilliard Stern. Not great films perhaps, but effective films in which you were already this fascinating actor. I’m not ashamed to tell you, and even though the years have been cruel with the film, I cried in front of The winner, tears that I still remember and which, if they were not my first in front of a film, were those which made me understand that being moved by a work is one of the most beautiful things in the world. You are linked to this memory and before citing other reasons that made me love you again and again, I wanted to remember this emotion that I have never forgotten. I didn’t know at the time that in 1975 you had been the producer of Flight over a cuckoo’s nest of Milos Forman with Jack Nicholsona film that will give me a stratospheric slap when I discover it a few years later.

It was your 80s that made me switch from admiration to adulation because you chained Judges night of Peter Hyamsa film that I literally adore then In pursuit of the green diamond of Robert Zemeckis in which you were resurrected alongside Kathleen Turner the adventure film of the 50s. Oh how I liked this film, funny and removed, it was really pure happiness. You were full of bad faith and bad temper there and your relationship with your co-star was a big part of the fun we had there. But it’s no coincidence, you exploded with this film as a top actor in Hollywood and then lined up at least four films that are part of my personal pantheon (Fatal Liaison, Wall Street, Black Rain And The Wars of the Roses) and in which you played characters at odds with each other, mythical characters in films that I can still see and see again today without getting tired. But just for Gordon Gekko And Nick Conklinthank you again and again so much you have invested these films and these characters with your light, your cinegénie, your aura and you have made them unique and apart. Gordon Gekko which by the way earned you the much-deserved Oscar for best actor. That carnivorous smile, that Machiavellian seduction really suited you perfectly.

Subsequently, you had a less straight trajectory but you piled on formidable roles and singular, strong, seductive, troubled and profound characters, thus signing a first-class filmography. There aren’t many of them on the planet of Hollywood who can claim to have played roles as strong and legendary as those of Basic Instinct (you are phenomenal there and your face-to-face with Sharon Stone is anthological), Freefall, The President and Miss Wade, The Game, Traffic... Even less “prestigious” roles have allowed you to appear in far from trivial productions (The shadow and the prey, wonder boys…) even the immense My life with Liberace shot for television but presented at the Cannes Film Festival in 2013 where you were admirable, surprising and audacious. Cannes, where you will this year receive the prestigious Palme d’Or d’honneur that you so deserve, so much are you this actor, producer, total and complete artist, who is not only his father’s son but who has made a name and forged a destiny with the strength of the wrist, his talent and his convictions.

I could still weave you laurels, envy the younger generations who discover you in the universe Marvel, I could try to transcribe all the admiration I have for the man and the artist. I could tell you that you were a prodigious comic actor in The Kominsky method and that I can’t wait to see you in the mini-series franklin Or Reagan & Gorbacchev, but all these words which fly towards you and which will perhaps never reach you will in any case be only a small thing compared to the crazy spectator happiness that you have offered me for almost 50 years. Down with modesty, down with the words that we keep quiet and that we only say too often when it’s too late, but here is the truth, I love you Michael Douglas. You are a major artist, one of those capital artists who insinuate themselves into the lives of their admirers to offer them a bouquet of their talent and bring color to their lives.

With all my admiration, your devoted Fred Teeper.