Rescued thanks to Prime Video and Séries Plus, the series Sleepless night reborn from its ashes with a sulphurous perfume with notes of black humor.
At the end of the first season of Sleepless night, we learned that Loulou Hébert (France Castel) had been killed by Clémence (Lisette Guertin). However, the latter claimed that the culprit was Aidrian (Ron Lea), who had always been in love with Loulou. By going to Clémence’s house, the Hébert children, Marlène (Marilyse Bourke), Charlotte (Valérie Blais) and Lucas (Jean-Philippe Perras), discovered that their mother’s eternal rival had shot herself in the head. In voiceover, Loulou suggested that Clémence had one or more accomplices.
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, THE PRESS
Actors Nico Racicot, Jean-Philippe Perras, Rose-Marie Perreault, Brigitte Lafleur, Jean-Nicolas Verreault, Kim Despatis and Marilyse Bourke
Launched in September 2021 on ICI Télé, Sleepless night, a series set in the luxurious world of perfumes and cosmetics told in two eras, had been canceled for reasons of audience ratings (850,000 spectators, that was still not bad…), schedule and budget. Having planned to decline over three seasons her “ppp” or “police thriller”, to use her expression, the author Julie Hivon left several questions unanswered in the twelfth and final episode of the first season.
Thanks to an agreement between Pixcom, Séries Plus and Prime Video, without forgetting a petition signed by tens of thousands of loyal spectators, Sleepless night comes back to life.
At the request of Prime Video, proud to offer the Quebec public its first French-speaking fiction, the series will this time be available in eight episodes. “There is a payoff in season 2, a real ending,” promises producer Charles Lafortune.
From the first two episodes, presented to the press on Wednesday morning, it is clear that the plot is tighter, the dialogues sharper and the production more muscular. “Since season 1, I knew what my punches were, everyone’s secrets,” reveals Julie Hivon during a press briefing held at the Cinémathèque québécoise. “By changing the format, I had to get there faster. So I let go of some things because I had to purify in order to keep things that I found important. »
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, THE PRESS
The author Julie Hivon and the director Julien Hurteau
In the second season directed by Julien Hurteau, who took over from Sébastien Gagné, Marlène, flanked by her husband Christophe (Jean-Moïse Martin), Charlotte (Brigitte Lafleur replacing Valérie Blais) and Lucas notice that Clémence does not is not suicide. So who killed Clémence? What secrets does she take to the grave? What is the motive for the crime? Between Loulou’s three children, the tension will be greater than ever, and we will enjoy seeing them sink into crime, lies and betrayals.
“When I was offered Sleepless night, I found it intimidating, says Julien Hurteau. I was greatly reassured by the fact that we had kept the director of photography Simon Villeneuve, with whom I had worked on Alerts ; so I knew we would be on familiar ground. »
The jump to the 1980s also allowed me to distance myself from season 1, which took place in the 1970s. In the next episodes, we go a lot into colors, we go completely elsewhere than in the previous season.
Julien Hurteau, director of season 2 of Sleepless night
Obviously, Julie Hivon took pleasure in revealing little by little the sulphurous past of Loulou (Rose-Marie Perrault), who we follow from 1981 to 1988, and her tense relationship with her neighbor Jacinthe (Kim Despatis), creator of the Nuit blanche perfume. Incarnated in the past by Thomas Boonen and in the present by Jean-Nicolas Verreault, the photographer Marco, son of Jacinthe, will take on more importance.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY PRODUCTION
Kim Despatis, Rose-Marie Perreault and Thomas Boonen in Sleepless night
We will thus discover the relationship he had in his youth with Clémence (Élodie Grenier, unrecognizable under the impressive makeup of Stéphane Tessier). Likewise, we will follow him, in the company of Loulou (France Castel) whom he presses with questions, in sequences shot in black and white – with all due respect to a certain columnist of The Press !
“I knew there was going to be black and white in Dune and I was filming in the summer where Oppenheimer is out ; so you couldn’t tell me that it wasn’t fashionable or in tune with the times, says Julien Hurteau. I found it fun and since we are setting up several eras, we had to distance them. On the second reading of the script, with the director of photography, we realized that we had to be honest. It also allowed something more poetic and more classic for France Castel. »
His mother having died in tragic circumstances, Marco, like the suave Aidrian (Nico Racicot in the past), will be included on the long list of suspects in this whodunit tinged with astonishing black humor, where alcohol flows freely. As in the good old days of soaps evening at the Dallas And Dynasty.
“The characters are under great pressure, especially Marlène… Alcohol is something that I put in the text and we played with it in the production. For me, it’s a fun show. I had fun with the eras, planting things that would pop up later, playing with the spectators,” concludes Julie Hivon.
The eight episodes of season 2 of Sleepless night are available on Prime video. The 12 episodes of season 1 are available on Prime Video and on ICI Tou.tv Extra. The series will be broadcast on Séries Plus from August 28.