Workaholic and free spirit

Gerard Depardieu

In France, you can run from Gerard Depardieu, screaming, but you cannot hide.

The Greatest Living French Actor made nine films last year - in other words, more than one movie every six weeks.

Even for the workaholic, money-loving Depardieu, this is a record. His previous best effort was seven movies in 2002.

This week, Depardieu will also have to find time in his crowded schedule to answer questions from French detectives on his friendship with a mysterious, young Algerian millionaire whose bogus financial empire collapsed two years ago.

Nine big-screen movies in a year (plus two television films) is not just a French record. It is almost certainly a record for any big-name actor since Gene Autry and Roy Rogers trotted out monthly Westerns in the Californian desert in the 1950s.

If so, it is hardly a record of which Depardieu - the man with the seductive, gravelly voice, the floppy boyish hair, and the nose like an old potato - should be proud.

By the Greatest Living French Actor's own admission, it is a decade since he made a film of any quality. Few of his movies achieve international renown, or even an international release, these days. Have you ever heard of Nathalie or RRRrrr! or San Antonio, all shown in France last year? Neither have many people in France, judging by the box-office returns.

Depardieu, 56 last month, never puts in a truly bad performance, but he shuns roles that might test his immense talent, as revealed in Les Valseuses (1973), Jean de Florette (1986) or Cyrano de Bergerac (1990), for which he received an Oscar nomination.

In recent years, he has been mostly memorable - acting in his sleep - as the outsize twit Obelix in the Asterix movies, or the butch, fur-loving fashion designer, Jean-Pierre Le Pelt, in 102 Dalmatians.

The great man - "Gege" to his friends - said recently that he no longer regards himself as an actor but as a free spirit, who does a little bit of acting on the side. He was joking, presumably.

All the same, you have to admire the GLFA's stamina. Apart from the nine films, apart from the two television movies, Depardieu is now appearing with Fanny Ardant on the Paris stage (for the first time in six years).

On December 27, his birthday, Depardieu opened his second Paris restaurant. "L'Ecaille de la Fontaine", again jointly owned with his romantic partner, the actress Carole Bouquet, stands opposite his first restaurant, "La Fontaine Gaillon", near the Opera.

Placing the restaurants close together should save Depardieu a little time for his other activities: his interests in vineyards in the Loire, Bordeaux, Languedoc, Sicily and Algeria; his investments in oil-exploration; his international lecture tour, performing readings from Saint Augustine; his friendships with the great and the good and the doubtful and the bad, ranging from Pope John Paul II to Bernadette Chirac to Fidel Castro to the aforementioned runaway Algerian millionaire, Moumen Khalifa.

What makes Depardieu tick? Money mostly, according to his estranged actor son Guillaume, who published a blistering attack on his dad two years ago.

Money does matter to Depardieu pere, but Depardieu fils understates the complexity and perversity of the man.

Depardieu is said to demand millions to appear in a "commercial" movie, however bad.

He has also been known to work for the minimum wage on other lightly funded films, if the script pleases him.

This year is the 40th anniversary of Depardieu's movie debut (he has made 129, and still counting). "I've become a caricature of myself," he said in a recent interview. "But I don't give a stuff about that ... "

In another interview, he said: "For me, the most important thing is not acting, it's life. I have abundantly pursued my trade but, finally, I don't give a bugger about my career. People can call me all the names they like. I'm not interested."

What a cheek. What a talent.

What a pity.

- INDEPENDENT

On screen

*Who: Gerard Depardieu, French screen star

*What: Ruby & Quentin

*Where & When: Screening Rialto cinemas and Open Air Cinema , Viaduct Harbour, Thursday February 10, 8.30pm