--- name: "Bernard Ménez" canonical: "https://film.one/person/bernard-menez" fi1m_id: "bernard-menez" imdb_id: "nm0579500" tmdb_id: 18770 wikidata_id: "Q336694" roles: ["Actor"] born: "8 August 1944" reviewed_on_fi1m: 1 average_as: "actor" average_over: 1 updated: "2026-09-22T14:40:05.227455+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Bernard Ménez ## Identity Bernard Ménez - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/bernard-menez - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** bernard-menez - **IMDb ID:** nm0579500 - **TMDB ID:** 18770 - **Wikidata ID:** Q336694 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_M%C3%A9nez, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q336694, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0579500/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/18770 Actor. Born 8 August 1944 in Mailly-le-Château, Yonne, France. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 8 August 1944, Mailly-le-Château, Yonne, France - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_M%C3%A9nez, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q336694, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0579500/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/18770 ## Fi1m on Bernard Ménez > Bernard Ménez has spent half a century playing the man at the table who is slightly too pleased with himself, for Rozier and Truffaut as readily as in the broadest comedy, and he is at his best when a director lets the joke hurt. In *Tonnerre* (2014) Bernard Ménez cheats at cards. He does it badly, on purpose, so that his son will catch him, and the pleasure on his face when he is caught is the whole character: a quick, needling man who would rather be found out than be ignored. Vincent Macaigne, large and apologetic across the table, is the film's subject. Ménez is the noise around him, and he has been making some version of that noise since 1973. He came to acting sideways, from teaching maths, physics and chemistry, and started in 1969. Jacques Rozier gave him his film debut in *Du côté d'Orouët* (1973), the same year Truffaut put him in *La Nuit américaine*, and the part he fixed then, the awkward, clumsy man you end up fond of, is the part he has been offered ever since. Pascal Thomas offered it most often, ten films beginning with *Le Chaud Lapin* (1974). Rozier came back to him for *Maine-Océan* (1986), as a ticket inspector, and that is the film people who care about him name first. In between he took what was going: three films for Jean-Pierre Mocky, La Flèche opposite Louis de Funès in *L'Avare* (1980), a part he asked for himself in de Funès's dressing room, and a run of cheap comedies that French critics file under nanars. He has never seemed to draw a line between the two kinds of work. The usual complaint is that it is always the same man, and the complaint is fair. Thomas used him as a type and the type did not grow. What changes is what the director does around him. In *Tonnerre* Guillaume Brac lets the kitchen jokes run for an hour and then shows us what they were covering. We were laughing at Ménez across that table, quite happily, and then a scene of Macaigne sitting alone in his car in the dark made us properly uncomfortable, because we saw that neither man had said the one thing that mattered and the needling had been how the father avoided it. The performance had not changed. Our view of it had. Ménez plays the surface, and it is up to the director to show what is under it. Start with *Tonnerre*, which uses him exactly as he should be used, as the loud man in a quiet film. Then look for the Rozier films, where he is younger and looser and the joke has not yet turned. He has kept working, on stage and as a singer as well as on screen, and the type has outlasted most of the directors who fixed it. He will presumably go on being cast as the man who is slightly too pleased with himself, and on the evidence of *Tonnerre* that is still a good use of an evening. ## Biography Bernard Ménez is a French actor and singer. Born on 8 August 1944 in Mailly-le-Château, Yonne, he began his screen career in 1969 with Jacques Rozier’s *Du côté d’Orouët* and went on to appear in more than seventy films. He is particularly associated with the work of Rozier and Pascal Thomas, appearing in films including *La Nuit américaine* (1973), *Le Chaud Lapin* (1974) and *Maine-Océan* (1986). Other notable roles include appearances in *La Grande Bouffe* (1973), *L’Avare* (1980) and *L’Amour dure trois ans* (2011). In *Tonnerre* (2013) he played the father of the central character, for which he received the jury prize for best supporting actor at the 2014 Festival Jean-Carmet de Moulins. *Sources: fr.wikipedia.org, en.wikipedia.org.* ## On Fi1m (1) - *Tonnerre* (2014), Fi1m 66, as Le Père — [page](https://film.one/film/tonnerre.md) ## Complete filmography (60) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *God Save the Tuches* (2025), as Charles III - *Tant de vagues et de fumées* (2024), Actor - *Big Kids* (2023), Actor - *Je t'aime, filme-moi !* (2022), Actor - *The Legend of Black Snake* (2019), as Le président français - *For the Ones We Loved* (2019), as The Secretary - *À vos souhaits* (2018), as Ludovic Méricourt, the son-in-law - *Loue-moi !* (2017), as Serge Masson - *Sélection Officielle* (2017), as Charlot - *Croque monsieur* (2016), as Anatole Longvy - *Le Cabanon rose* (2016), as Bertrand - *The Law* (2014), as Eugène Claudius-Petit - *Nice and Easy* (2014), as Monsieur Lochu - *Le quepa sur la vilni !* (2014), as André - *Tonnerre* (2014), as Le Père — Fi1m 66, [page](https://film.one/film/tonnerre.md) - *Love Lasts Three Years* (2011), as Père de Marc - *A Very Very Beautiful Love Story* (2010), as Le patron du salon de coiffure - *On dînera au lit* (2008), as Robert - *The Car Keys* (2003), as Actor Refusing to Film with Laurent - *France Boutique* (2003), as Marcus - *Leave Your Hands on My Hips* (2003), as Le concierge - *Public Affairs* (2003), as Bernard - *La bête de miséricorde* (2001), as l'inspecteur Franck Moreau - *Girlfriends* (2000), as Mr. Suarez - *Bisous Bisous* (1991), as Bernard - *Joséphine en tournée* (1991), series, as Edouard Bonnaire - *Voir l'éléphant* (1990), as Fantasio - *The Seasons of Pleasure* (1988), as Simon - *Didi Drives Me Crazy* (1986), as Marcel - *Maine-Ocean Express* (1986), as Contrôleur titualire Le Gallec - *Oh, oh, oh, jolie tournée !* (1984), Thanks - *It Will Hurt!* (1982), as François Léaud - *Les p’tites têtes* (1982), as Daniel · Writer, Director - *Le Chêne d'Allouville* (1981), as Bernard Lecourt, vicar - *The Ones That Got Away* (1981), as Robert - *The Miser* (1980), as La Flèche - *Marketing Mix* (1979), as Jean-Luc Maginot - *Duets on Sofa* (1979), as Robert Burton - *Le Plus Heureux des trois* (1979), as Ernest - *Tendrement vache* (1979), as Pierre Ganet - *La frisée aux lardons* (1979), as Maurice, dit Doudoune - *Heart to Heart* (1979), as Etienne - *Ça fait tilt* (1978), as Claude Martin - *A Sea Urchin in the Pocket* (1977), as Félix Pigouilloux - *Nono Nénesse* (1976), as Nénesse - *Dracula and Son* (1976), as Ferdinant - *The Education in Love of Valentin* (1976), as Valentin - *Forget Me, Mandoline* (1976), as Michel - *Lola's Lolos* (1976), as The mysterious diver - *No Problem!* (1975), as Jean-Pierre Michalon - *Trop c'est trop* (1975), as Curé - *Like a Pot of Strawberries* (1974), as Philippe - *Operation Lady Marlene* (1974), as Clovis - *Tender Dracula* (1974), as Alfred - *Le Chaud Lapin* (1974), as William - *The Four Charlots Musketeers* (1974), as Le gouverneur de La Bastille - *Don't Cry with Your Mouth Full* (1973), as Alexandre - *Near Orouët* (1973), as Gilbert - *Day for Night* (1973), as Bernard, the Property Master - *La Grande Bouffe* (1973), as Pierre ## Gallery - ![Bernard Ménez](https://film.one/media/person/1290766/gallery-e28321b4d2a3.jpg) Bernard Ménez — Georges Biard, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/Bernard_Menez_Cannes_2015.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Bernard Menez Cannes 2019](https://film.one/media/person/1290766/gallery-6ea681926229.jpg) Bernard Menez Cannes 2019 — Georges Biard, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/Bernard_Menez_Cannes_2019.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Bernard Menez en 2012, tournoi de pétanques à SPA.](https://film.one/media/person/1290766/gallery-ba1b68b610b4.jpg) Bernard Menez en 2012, tournoi de pétanques à SPA. — Michaël Bemelmans, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f8/Les_stars_ont_les_boules_2012_056.jpg/1280px-Les_stars_ont_les_boules_2012_056.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Bernard Ménez en 2023.](https://film.one/media/person/1290766/gallery-d1aa4cbdc36d.jpg) Bernard Ménez en 2023. — ManoSolo13241324, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/95/Bernard_M%C3%A9nez_2023.jpg/1280px-Bernard_M%C3%A9nez_2023.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Bernard Ménez](https://film.one/media/person/1290766/gallery-6c0d1b68d0ba.jpg) Bernard Ménez — Image via TMDB --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/bernard-menez