what is Part 2 of the documentary series “Never show this to anyone” worth?

To be completely honest, we weren’t expecting much from this second part of the series. never show that to anyone. A year after having delighted us with six exciting episodes on the rise of OrelSan, the fruit of twenty years of filming him in private, his little brother Clément Cotentin is back with four episodes that we imagined at best as a nice bonus. But Clément, who gave up his job as a sports journalist to devote himself full-time to this sequel, knows how to do it.

He recounts this time the two long years of creation of OrelSan’s latest album, Civilization, huge success published in November 2021, from the white page to the first concerts. Against all expectations, this Part 2 turns out to be as delectable as it is exciting.

It all starts at the start of the pandemic, with the announcement of the first confinement in March 2020. OrelSan decides to withdraw to his home in Caen, where he has just completed the construction of an elegant studio in wood and glass at the bottom of the garden. of his recently acquired home. Objective: throw a few ideas in bulk and save models, without pressure, with a vague idea of ​​concept: destroy to better rebuild. He thinks he has two weeks ahead of him, he will have much more, Covid obliges.

The documentary unveils the intimacy of OrelSan’s creative process like never before – “i’m into writing reality tv“, he reproaches moreover to his brother whose camera does not let go of a sole. His big doubts, his blows of madness, the disappearance of his precious notes in the depths of the computer, his blows of genius: Clément, who came from the start to confine himself with his family, followed everything.

Where we learn that OrelSan begins all his albums in the same way: alone, in silence, starting by sorting and arranging by theme the thousands of notes he takes H 24 on his phone, extension of his mind in permanent boil and database of his future songs.

At first, the rapper is in verve. A few days later, dejection gnaws at him. “It sucks (…) I sing out of tune and I can’t write music“, he notes, disillusioned. “I’m at the stage where I say to myself: but why am I making an album again, in fact?“Inspiration cannot be commanded: rebellious, it slips away. In February 2021, while the album is scheduled for October, it still has no track. There is also his marriage to Ahélya, already postponed, at As the record deadline approaches, the pressure mounts and her hair grows (we’ve never seen it this long!).

Along the way, we discover drafts of songs that have remained unreleased to this day, and even – big scoop from the doc – a huge potential tube in duet with Angèle, abandoned and rejected from the album for lack of time to record it properly. Songs are sometimes the result of three disparate things put together, like best daythe title that unlocked the album and that OrelSan had planned from the start – a real stroke of genius – to sing a cappella intro to his future concerts.

Once the confinement is lifted, his two friends and collaborators Skread (producer and sound director) and Ablaye (backer, cook, trainer, adviser) finally come to join him. Their gaze is precious: they are the only ones who can tell him in all honesty that certain drafts he has laid are “zero to shit“. We then follow the three acolytes seeking inspiration from Paris to Mexico and from Brittany to Miami, notably for the recording of a featuring by Pharrell Williams in the Neptunes studio – a moment that Clément manages to make particularly funny despite lack of pictures.

In this respect, the director skilfully exploits all the tricks to make his series attractive: in addition to a deceptively messy energetic editing, he has the protagonists comment on the action afterwards (as in Top chef), he speeds up the image , adds animation elements…

Even if he is more often filmed jumping out of bed in a sagging tracksuit and tap-socks than to his advantage, these four episodes without downtime (except the second which drags on when the rapper’s inspiration is in Bern), no doubt advantageously shape the image of OrelSan, compensating in passing for its all too rare presence in the media.

This second part confirms in any case that the rapper from Caen never lets himself be defeated. He loses all his precious notes and after a few hours he starts again, using this ordeal to bounce back better. He invests in a notebook and a pen and then has the idea of ​​a film on a demonstration. This will be the 7 minute piece of bravery Manifest, written like a real screenplay. So much so that we wouldn’t be surprised to find Orel the next time behind the camera rather than behind the microphone, as was the case for How far is it in 2016. Until then, we expect him firmly as a Titanix in the next Asterix film.

never show this to anyone part 2 by Clément Cotentin and Christophe Offenstein – the four episodes available from Thursday, October 13 on Amazon Prime.