COMMENTARY : Star Quality of Depardieu on Display in 5-Day Tribute : Film: French actor’s best work will be screened at Ken Cinema starting Sunday.

A lady friend, spotting Gerard Depardieu’s picture on the cover of an English magazine, reacted like a 13-year-old, circa 1964, who had just seen Paul McCartney ordering a hamburger at the local McDonald’s.

“Gee, I worship the ground he waddles on,” she said, slightly breathlessly.

The key word is “waddle.” It is not the type of term used to describe the typical hunk movie star. Nobody ever says Robert Redford waddles.

Depardieu, the prolific French actor who will be the subject of a 10-film, five-day tribute at the Ken Cinema beginning Sunday is no classic heartthrob.

“He is a complete oaf,” my friend admits, after deciding “lumbering” was probably more accurate than “waddling.”

And this is where Depardieu has managed to set himself apart from the proletariat of cinema demigods, at least in the minds of his devoted legions.

“He is not pretty to look at, but his charm completely overrides that,” my friend said.

Her reaction to seeing Depardieu’s face on the cover of a magazine was in itself surprising, although typical of Depardieu’s mystique, the Depardieu-mania currently hitting American shores. When it comes to Depardieu, people either love him or have no idea who he is. For every fan who swoons at the sight of his swarthy mug on the cover of a magazine, there are two more who would scurry over to pick up the latest “People” magazine story on Cher.

After starring in more than 60 French films, he is only now leaking into the American mainstream, thanks to his stirring performance in “Cyrano de Bergerac” (for which he has received an Academy Award nomination) and the sitcom movie “Green Card,” his first major American role.

Several of his films, including “The Return of Martin Guerre” and “Jean de Florette,” were huge hits in France, and some even found marginal success in the art houses of the United States.

In America, though, there is a huge chasm between the small-but-loyal crowds that frequent French films and the vast populace that makes a brain-dead movie such as “Ghost” a huge box office smash.

Depardieu, 42, probably will never make that leap, primarily because he is French and doesn’t quite fit the image of an American movie star.

For one, there is his physical appearance. His look may have captivated international theater goers for 20 years, but it would make it extremely difficult for him to break into American movies. He’s a hulking, brutish looking man. He’ll never play an aerobics instructor. For many roles, he slouches over, his bulbous nose and ham-hock hands giving him the look of a not-so-successful fighter.

If he were an American actor, he’d probably be categorized as a rural type and, after appearing as Lenny in 13 different versions of “Of Mice and Men,” he’d be typecast in a run of “Deliverance”-style films.

In typical fashion, his major English-speaking film debut, the recently released “Green Card,” was more a package than a film. They lined him up opposite a hot actress, Andie MacDowell, and tried to make sparks fly. The fact that it didn’t happen was a reflection of the inane American filmmaking process, not of Depardieu’s skills.

French directors have been willing to stretch Depardieu. He has been cast in a variety of roles, allowing him to defy the one-line classifications that often inhibit American cinema stars. Among other things, he is well known for a series of schtick comedies, which are often compared to Laurel and Hardy-type films, so it’s not like he is the spokesman for some elitist school of French acting.

And, unlike his prima donna American brethren, he works constantly. He is most often compared to the likes of Marlon Brando and Robert DeNiro, but he is more of a common man’s William Hurt. Like Hurt, he is able to slide in and out of completely different characters, often without the benefit of makeup or costuming changes.

In “Broadcast News” and “The Accidental Tourist,” Hurt painted portraits of two completely different characters without any overt physical aids. Depardieu’s vivid portrayal of the consumed French sculptor Rodin in Bruno Nuytten’s “Camille Claudel” comes from the shuffling, intense walk, the gestures and the posture, more than dialogue or props. Portraying the title role in “Martin Guerre,” he looks vaguely the same (albeit younger), but he is a completely different man, a mysterious, romantic, peasant in a 16th-Century village.

Depardieu tends toward peasant roles, men of the land, in historical tales. But he can easily slide into urban sophisticates. Either as a rogue or lover, he is completely believable, understated, able to convey energy and emotion with a simple look.

“A film with Gerard Depardieu may be many things, but it is never cold or emotionless,” Gannett News Service chief film critic Jack Garner wrote in a recent article. “His films usually mirror the man--robust, excitable, vigorous and embracing.”

Much like his film career, Depardieu’s background is mysterious and legendary. Depending on which story can be believed, he broke away from his working class parents when he was 8, 12 or 13 years old, embarking on a life of traveling and petty crime which landed him in jail at least once.

His first big breakthrough film, “Going Places,” released in 1974, which tells of two lusty drifters, is largely believed to reflect elements of Depardieu’s own adolescence. The Ken will screen a new, uncut print of the Bertrand Blier film--the first of many collaborations between Depardieu and Blier--Monday at 7 p.m.

“Going Places” is “so near to me, because I made it when I was 23 years old, and I had myself only quit that life when I was 16,” Depardieu recently told a reporter.

The Ken has chosen 10 films that spotlight Depardieu’s versatility, as well as landmarks in his career; they display an actor with an unpretentious, low-key style, able to invoke passionate responses from cinema fans.

He may not look like Tom Cruise, but Depardieu is a movie star in the classic sense, evidenced by the lengthy examinations of his “techniques” by bored movie critics and, especially, the squeals of fans.

Times, Dates for Films

Here is a schedule of the films in the Ken Cinema’s tribute to Gerard Depardieu. The Ken Cinema is at Adams Avenue and Terrace Drives in Kensington. For more information, call 283-5909.

Sunday * Jean de Florette” (Claude Berri, 1986): Depardieu portrays a hunchback farmer attempting to carve out a life in rural France of 1920. Yves Montand co-stars. 2:00 and 7:00 p.m.

* “The Last Metro” (Francois Truffaut, 1980): Catherine Deneuve co-stars as an actress struggling to keep her exiled husband’s (Depardieu) theater alive during the German occupation of Paris. He won a Cesar, the French equivalent of the Oscar, for his role. 4:30 and 9:25 p.m.

Monday * “Going Places” (Bertrand Blier, 1974): Depardieu’s breakthrough film has been restored and reissued. He portrays a lustful vagabond in this violent black comedy that has won widespread critical acclaim. 2:50 and 7:00 p.m.

* “Menage” (Bertrand Blier, 1986): Depardieu plays a transvestite thief who invades the life of a wealthy couple. 1:15, 5:20 and 9:30 p.m.

Tuesday * “Police” (Maurice Pialat, 1986): Depardieu is a policeman tracking down a Tunisian crime family. 7:00 p.m.

* “Get Out Your Handkerchiefs” (Bertrand Blier, 1978): Depardieu reteams with Patrick Dewaere, his “Going Places” co-star, for a sex comedy about two men in love with the same woman. The winner of the year’s Best Foreign Film Oscar. 5:00 and 9:15 p.m.

Wednesday * “Mon Oncle D’Amerique” (Alain Resnais, 1980): An upbeat and insightful view of what makes people tick and the sparks that control their actions. 7:00 p.m.

* “Les Comperes” (Francis Verber, 1984): Usually considered the best of the three slapstick comedies Depardieu has made with actor Pierre Richard. 5:15 and 9:25 p.m.

Thursday * “Camille Claudel” (Bruno Nuytten, 1989): Depardieu, portraying the volatile sculptor Rodin, is an engaging foil to Isabelle Adjani’s stunning portrayal of Rodin’s mistress and fellow sculptor. The role earned Depardieu his third Best Actor Cesar nomination. 6:30 and 9:30 p.m.

* “The Return of Martin Guerre” (Daniel Vigne, 1982): The National Society of Film Critics gave Depardieu its Best Actor award for his portrayal of the mysterious man who returns to his native village in 16th-Century France. 9:30 p.m.