A “zero” episode broadcast, a disappointing audience… before the success, the difficult beginnings of “Plus belle la vie”

The end, everyone is talking about it right now. On May 5, France Télévisions announced the end of the broadcast of the series in November 2022. More beautiful life. The public group invoked the evolution of “viewers’ expectations” to justify its decision.

But faced with the incredible success of the Marseille soap opera for 18 years on the screen, most people do not remember the difficulties encountered by More beautiful life when it launched in 2004. At the time, producing a daily 26-minute episode was a considerable challenge. Actors, producers and directors who embarked on the adventure at its beginnings tell us about their first memories of filming in the Belle de Mai studios in Marseille.

Produce a daily episode: “we were really late”

In the French audiovisual landscape, More beautiful life had the effect of a bomb with its concept: to broadcast a 26-minute episode every day (excluding weekends). In 2004, no one ever did that. It was a huge challenge facing the production teams.

“The challenge was to put everything in one place: viewing, post-production… It was a new way of working. We had to shoot about fifteen scenes in the studios a day, because at the At the time, we shot more indoors than today. We had three cameras on set and the director could speak directly to the actors. We fumbled a bit, but that was normal.”remembers Pascal Heylbroeck, director of episodes of More beautiful life since 2004.

The team began filming rehearsals from July 2004 for a broadcast of the first episode on August 30. It takes a few weeks for the technicians and the actors to get on their feet and find their rhythm so that the soap opera’s on-screen debut is of good quality. “It was really going very quickly. We weren’t at all used to it, but it was happening in a great benevolence. Although I had worked on my text well, I felt a little lost at the start”says actress Cécilia Hornus, who in the series plays French teacher Blanche Marci.

There is so much to do to give birth to the adventures of the fictional Mistral district – the setting of the series – that the production is behind its forecasts a few days from the great debut of Marseille fiction on the screen. The rest is Michelle Podroznik who tells it with her banter.

“It was August 30 and we were really late for filming. So we aired a ‘zero’ episode that was not supposed to air. So the sound and light wasn’t very good”, grimaces the 81-year-old producer. His energy makes him ten years younger, as if the adventures of the characters of More beautiful life offered him eternal youth.

An initially disappointing audience: “at the 40th episode, we decided to start from scratch”

In this month of May 2022, France Télévisions pointed to the erosion of the series’ audiences for several years. In 2004, producers faced the same problem. The beginnings were difficult with an audience share of around 7% in the first weeks, when the objective was higher.

“The first day, the ratings were very bad. But the management of France Télévisions reassured us by telling us that it was going to work”smiles Michelle Podroznik. France Télévisions had ordered 130 episodes from the production company Telfrance Série (which was bought in 2008 by Newen, which itself joined TF1 in 2015). This contract for a large number of episodes allows teams to More beautiful life not to suffer insane pressure from the first weeks.

However, after 40 episodes, the production feels it needs to make adjustments to appeal to a wider audience. “In episode 40, we were at the festival of fiction in Saint-Tropez. That’s when we decided to get out of the ‘daily life’ of the inhabitants of the Mistral. We said to ourselves that we had to start from scratch with our characters. Olivier Szulzynger joined us at that time and helped bring something else “, said Michelle Podroznik.

This famous 40th episode marks a break with the addition of new, more incredible narrative arches. It is in particular the arrival in the soap opera of Luna Torres, a character who will change a lot of things in the Mistral district.

It is Anne Decis, the actress who plays Luna Torres, who talks about it best. “I had seen the first day of filming and at the start the plots were a bit like ‘Rachel loses her keys’. But my character was more controversial with fairly high stakes. My agent told me: ‘you’ll see , in a few months you’ll still be here’. Luna Torres is one of the characters who started to strain the series, to strain the relationships between characters.”says Anne Decis.

With more twists, complex police investigations and mysterious murders, the series becomes less realistic but more addictive. Audiences really took off at the beginning of 2005 until reaching a peak in 2011-2012 with an audience share exceeding 20%. A huge score for France 3, the channel on which is broadcast More beautiful life.

Taming Marseille: “I asked who was dégun”

In 2004, the choice of Marseille to produce More beautiful life is daring. Marseille is not yet a popular city for film crews.

“Two days after winning the call for tenders, we were leaving for Marseille. We went on a scouting trip to find the place where we were going to set up the decor. We visited a candy factory, it smelled good but it didn’t. was not doinglaugh Michelle Podroznik. Then, we visited the studios set up by the town hall and we said to ourselves: ‘this is where we have to shoot’. There was nothing except the walls. We toured the studios by the light of our phones in the dark. Then we visited the streets of the Prado district and we said to ourselves: ‘this is what we have to do’”.

“The idea was not to embody Marseille characters”

For the actors, it is also necessary to take the fold of the decoration, even if the production does not want to fall into the caricature of the Marseille postcard. “I knew Marseille a little. But the idea was not to embody Marseille characters. Not everyone has a Marseille accent in Marseille. People also criticized us at the beginning that we We didn’t all speak with a Marseille accent. But all the characters are very different”judge Anne Decis.

The actress Rebecca Hampton, who interprets the character of Céline Frémont, arrived even more expectantly. “I really arrived in unknown territory. We didn’t know much, but we were very motivated. We had the right to a guided tour of Marseille, of the studios. My first memory of filming: I had to cross the whole place from the Mistral district to drink a parrot. I was shaking so much when I took the glass that I took it with both hands”laughs the actress.

A little later, she is faced with another (slight) problem: understanding the Marseilles language. “At one point I was tired and a technician said to me: “you can go sit over there, there is dégun. And I said: ‘But I don’t want to go see him dégun’”.

What’s next?

Eighteen years later, Marseille has become a city prized for its television know-how. And they are many to hope that More beautiful life be taken over by another distributor after the cessation of broadcasting on France 3 next November. “There are talks”says director Pascal Heylbroeck. “Now with Newen, we will try to put the series elsewhere”confirms producer Michelle Podroznik.