For the past few weeks, the Hauts-de-France region has been hosting the filming of a thriller. Lille, then more recently Cayeux-sur-Mer (Somme), served as the backdrop for this 90-minute TV movie which is currently called The Frencha working title.
They are cops but also brother and sister. Caroline, played by Sylvie Testud, and Francois, played by Samuel Labarthe, find themselves on this investigation after years of estrangement. Relationships are contentious. Old resentments from childhood resurface. “You trust my flair and my instincts. But I’m still the little one. Two notches below and you, the big brother, two notches above” launches Sylvie Testud in a scene. “We have two characters, two very opposite ways of doing things, but that’s good. It’s this famous dog-cat relationship that we find in all comedies” analyzes Samuel Labarthe. She, explosive, he, more composed. On the pitch, the duo works well because the two characters are complementary and, in the end, very united.
This TV movie is a pilot episode. If successful, it could become a series. By calling on two well-known actors, Mercer Productions, which produces the film, has in any case put all its chances on its side. Samuel Labarthe, a former resident of the Comédie Française, notably played Commissioner Swan Laurence in The Little Murders of Agatha Christie from 2013 to 2020. He is also regularly the French voice of George Clooney. Sylvie Testud won two Césars, that of the best female hope in 2001 for The killer wounds and the statuette for best actress in Stupor and tremors in 2004. Today, after thirty years of career, his filmography is impressive with more than 80 films or television films to his credit. “I always want to do things that I don’t know. Interpreting characters who are too written, that worries me. I have the impression that they can live without me. And there, with the producers and the screenwriters, there were a lot of openings” testifies Sylvie Testud. A pleasure shared with the director. “It’s great fun to work with Sylvie Testud and Samuel Labarthe, people who have so much experience and talent. So I’m having fun, I feel like I’m with two Stradivarius” rejoices Didier Bivel.
The TV movie should be broadcast on France 3 in early 2023.