Disobey: The choice of Chantale Daigle (Noovo) last fall, This is how I love you (ICI Tou.tv Extra) and IXE-13 (Club illico) this winter. The 2023-2024 television calendar suggests the strong return of period series. However, appearances are deceiving. Due to limited budgets, the future of fiction that revisits the past seems uncertain.
Josée Vallée knows a thing or two about period series. From 2004 to 2008, the producer oversaw Our summers (TVA), a family saga by authors Anne Boyer and Michel d’Astous whose action spanned from 1900 to 1966. Today executive vice-president, fiction and feature films, French-speaking market, of Sphère Média, she comes to throw IXE-13 and the race for uraniuma new offering from author Gilles Desjardins with Marc-André Grondin, Julie Le Breton and Vincent Leclerc which relates the adventures of a group of Canadian secret service agents in Montreal, in 1945.
“When there is less money, the period series is weakened,” explains Josée Vallée. We struggle to tell contemporary stories, so imagine the difficulties we have telling stories from the past. »
While the average cost of an hour of French-language fiction is $620,000, the budget actually increases from 25% to 40% when it comes to a period series, according to estimates from producers consulted to write this article. The sets, costumes and accessories add to the bill, not to mention the pre- and post-shooting work (research, visual effects, etc.).
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
The producer ofIXE-13 and the race for uraniumJosée Vallée
I produced Two brothers in 1999 at $490,000 per episode. Twenty-five years later, I have to produce shows for $500,000 per episode. We can’t even keep up with inflation. It is sad.
Josée Vallée, executive vice-president, fiction and feature films, French-speaking market, of Sphère Média
President of Productions Casablanca, box behind This is how I love you, Joanne Forgues is also concerned. The crisis facing the television sector exacerbates this feeling. “When budgets decrease, the period series which costs more is not a priority. It’s certain. »
For Alexis Durand-Brault, the situation is alarming. Faced with the glaring lack of resources to tell “our stories”, the director and producer of the biographical drama Disobey: The choice of Chantale Daigle decries “a culture in decline”.
“I am extremely worried. Radio-Canada has had great success with The countries above, but today, I don’t have the impression that they could repeat the experience because they just don’t have the money to do it anymore. »
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, THE PRESS
The director and producer Alexis Durand-Brault, during the filming of Disobey: The choice of Chantale Daigle
It’s sad because there are plenty of interesting and important characters that we could put on screen, like Thérèse Casgrain, a pioneer of women’s rights. There are plenty of good stories we could tell.
Alexis Durand-Brault, director and producer
More reassuring broadcasters
Despite funding issues, broadcasters are reassuring about period series. “Are they on the verge of extinction? No,” replies André Béraud, first director of drama programs and feature films at ICI Télé. After listing the original productions of the genre offered on Radio-Canada in recent years (This is how I love you, The countries above, The world of Gabrielle Roy, El Toro, For you Flora), André Béraud claims to have others “in development”.
At Quebecor Content, managers recognize that offering a large number of period series per year is impossible. But when an interesting proposition arises, their ears are wide open.
“For an exceptional project, you can find exceptional financing,” says Nadège Pouyez, general director of original content.
Management at Bell Media, which owns Noovo and Crave, declined our request for an interview.
The “diktats of Netflix”
According to the author of Upper country and D’IXE-13Gilles Desjardins, Quebec must continue to offer period series, even when foreign competition, which benefits from budgets of hundreds of millions of dollars to reproduce bygone decades (The Crown, Peaky Blinders, Stranger Things), seems almost disloyal.
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
The author Gilles Desjardins
We must oppose the dictates of Netflix, of the American industry… They want us to believe that there is only one way to make period series. It’s as if they’re saying to us, “Since you can’t do it like we do, just don’t do it.” We must resist. We have to do it our way.
The author Gilles Desjardins
Same story with Alexis Durand-Brault, who is currently working on writing a biographical series on Yvon Deschamps. He is waiting to have “really strong” texts to present the project to broadcasters.
“We must dare to tell these stories in a different and biting way… a bit like [Quentin] Tarantino with Inglourious Basterds, underlines Alexis Durand-Brault. My children rolled over Stranger Things. They loved it because it was shot in a young and cool way. From the time, it doesn’t have to be dusty, classic and earthy. It doesn’t have to look like Time for a peace. »
To understand the present
Members of the television industry may differ in opinion on the state – critical or not – of period series, all agree that they are of capital importance, which goes beyond simple entertainment.
“Looking at the past makes us understand things about our present,” notes Joanne Forgues. With This is how I love youFrançois [Létourneau] wanted to pass messages. Quebec women wanted to take their place in the heart of the 1970s. It shows the evolution of morals. We realize that some things have changed, and others less so. »
PHOTO BERTRAND CALMEAU, PROVIDED BY RADIO-CANADA
Vincent Leclerc and Sarah-Jeanne Labrosse in The countries above
For André Béraud, Quebec period series show how “the past is a guarantor of the future”. He mentions in particular The countries above, who proposed a plot of a smallpox epidemic before we hit a global COVID-19 pandemic. In one episode, some residents of Sainte-Adèle who were resistant to the vaccine even went so far as to concoct their own remedy using crazy ingredients…
“Period series show where we come from, who we are, and how far we can go,” underlines André Béraud.
“It’s not about nostalgia; it’s a question of anthropology,” adds Sophie Morasse, general director, television, of Radio-Canada.
Learn more
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- $620,000
- Average cost of an hour of French-language fiction
Canadian media funds, data provided by the Association québécoise des productions medias