such a long night is the story of Sami, an uneventful 19-year-old whose life changes one evening. He meets Gloria, a lost girl who introduces him to drugs and sex, who is found stabbed to death in her bed. Is Sami the murderer? He thinks not but does not remember anything. The new thriller from TF1, the first episodes of which are broadcast on Thursday January 20, brings together Mathilde Seigner as a whimsical lawyer and Jean-Pierre Darroussin as a cop convinced of the guilt of the suspect.
“I haven’t often had the opportunity to play police officers, it was very pleasant”, says the actor on franceinfo. “It’s his last case before retirement. He’s seen a lot of it in his life, he’s an old tom to whom we don’t do it. But the crime scene, the violence, the tortured young girl… He wants really find the culprit and bring this case to a close.” In the series, the character of Jean-Pierre Darroussin also has an ambiguous relationship with the lawyer played by Mathilde Seigner. “They know each other well, we understand that they had a history together a long time ago. She is marginal, a little weird, she defends the widow and the orphan. He is a very scrupulous policeman and deep down he is quite admiring of her audacity.”
Adapted from a British series, Criminal Justice, such a long night offers a breathtaking scenario: “The screenplay is magnificent. We don’t know until the end, we are caught up in the writing, I got caught and I wanted to defend it.”
This is the second series in which Jean-Pierre Darroussin participates after The office of legends. He doesn’t really see a difference in shooting for the small or the big screen: “It’s the same as cinema for me. It all depends on the writing, on the character, if I don’t want him to be played by someone else. It’s love at first sight with a role that determines things for me. Afterwards, the format, film or series or theater, it doesn’t matter.” He returned to the stage after months of inactivity due to the health crisis. Jean-Pierre Darroussin plays a single on stage at the Antoine theater in Paris, entitled Rimbaud on fire.
The day after the tragic death of Gaspard Ulliel, at the age of 37, Jean-Pierre Darroussin pays tribute to him: “I had done A Long Engagement Sunday with him. It’s awful… He had something of a cat, very calm. He didn’t panic with, at the same time, an energy that could arise at every moment. An opaque character, full of tenderness. A wonderful young man.”