The 2024 Nobel Prize for Literature, the mini-series “A Devoted Friend” and the composers of the soundtrack of the film “Emilia Perez”

In “Tout Public” on Thursday October 10, 2024, the Nobel Prize for Literature awarded to the South Korean Han Kang, Laure Calamy for her role in the mini-series “A Devoted Friend”, and the composers of the music for the film “Emilia Perez”, Clément Ducol and Camille”

The jury for the Nobel Prize in Literature has decided to reward South Korean author Han Kang this year. On this occasion, “Tout Public” spoke with its French publisher, Joachim Schnerf, from Grasset. When the price is announced, “the house completely exploded with joy”he says. For him, the strength of Han Kang’s work lies in the fact “that she manages to go back and forth between the tiny, the small feeling, the detail, and the more general history, the world history or the national history of South Korea.”

With this Nobel Prize, the publisher’s ambition now focuses on continuing to translate the work of Han Kang, which is rarely translated into French. “We will gradually continue to translate her work, both past and future, because she is finishing a new novel”the editor tells us, anticipating all future requests that could cause him to fall behind on writing. This Nobel Prize reflects the growing interest in South Korean culture on the part of Westerners, who have a “increasing appetite for this literature and this culture”believes Joachim Schnerf.

Laure Calamy stars in the mini-series A devoted friend Florence M. (Chris in the series), the false victim of the Bataclan attacks, sentenced to four and a half years in prison. The series is adapted from the book The Mythomaniac of the Bataclan by journalist Alexandre Kauffmann. The actress compares the character she plays to the Joker, a monstrous and endearing character at the same time. “We are attracted to it and at the same time, we hate it”she explains.

A disturbing series, which allows us to better understand the mechanisms of mythomaniac individuals. “They are extremely powerful, shares Laure Calamy. They have an extremely strong capacity for empathy because they themselves are suffering from something, they feel like victims of something. [Pour toutes ces raisons,] They are very good at talking about these things that they have not experienced.”

A devoted friendseries in four episodes to be found on the Max platform (formerly HBO Max).

The musical Emilia Perez would obviously be nothing without its soundtrack. This is also how the film was thought about by Jacques Audiard himself, as Clément Ducol, co-composer with the singer Camille of the film’s music, explains on the microphone of “Tout Public”. He remembers when they started working on the film in early 2019. “We didn’t have a scenario, (…) and Jacques Audiard wanted the scenario to really be constructed in song, in music”says Clément Ducol.

“We were very free to immerse ourselves in this story and to be as fair and honest as possible.”

While the film Emilia Perez is enjoying great success (awarded at the Cannes and Toronto festivals), and the musician and singer are about to fly to the United States to campaign for the Oscars, both artists express their enthusiasm at the idea to continue talking about the film, and the soundtrack in particular. “She will always follow us…” assures singer Camille.

The soundtrack albumEmilia Perez will be released on November 13, 2024. In the meantime, the first five tracks are already available to listen to on the platforms.

A program with the participation of Laurent Valière, and Thierry Fiorile, journalist in the culture department of franceinfo.