First series by playwright Dominick Parenteau-Lebeuf, We arrives Thursday on Club Illico and will soon rally followers of heartwarming stories brought by characters to whom we become attached or identify from the outset. Stories full of emotions “without rifles or hemoglobin”, as promised by the screenwriter following the presentation of the first two episodes of this series that Denis Dubois, vice-president, original content at Quebecor content, describes as ” soap opera ”.
Yes We is based mainly on Camille (Marianne Fortier), who returns from spending four months in South America to cope with the death of her grandmother and “BFF” Carmel (Louise Latraverse), We stars four other characters: Anaïs (Chanel Mings), Margaux (Laetitia Isambert), Thibault (Kevin Ranély) and Alexis (Nicolas Fontaine), who crossed paths with the premiere 24 years ago.
In addition to the script-editor Normand Canac-Marquis, Dominick Parenteau-Lebeuf was able to count on two major allies, Anne Boyer, of Duo Productions, and Yannick Savard, the director of Trapped. “A trio of hell! »Launches the prolific lady of the small screen, still moved to have said goodbye to the characters of The blue Hour, soap opera that she wrote with her faithful accomplice Michel D’Astous for five seasons.
Although the 12 other episodes of the first season have not even been shot yet – “they are written”, assures the screenwriter – Anne Boyer spontaneously admits that she wishes that We also lasts for five seasons and each revolves around a member of the quintet. “The second season would be devoted to Alexis…” she breathes.
Welcome to our house
Aspiring architect and fortune teller, Anaïs has just moved, like Camille’s financial advisor (Guillaume Champoux), in a multifunctional building called NOUS, it is also in this building that the cells Trapped.
Revealing that the series almost called itself The nursery, Dominick Parenteau-Lebeuf explains how she chose the title: “The project has seen a lot of development in six years; the title comes from a brainstorm at Duo, but I wanted to give it more meaning. While walking in the Botanical Garden, these letters appeared to me on a building faded. Everything then crystallized around this place, then it gave meaning to history and propelled these five destinies. “
Anaïs’s neighbor is Margaux, piano teacher and DJ, whose mother (Macha Limonchik), who suffers from cancer, shares a heavy secret with Camille’s mother (Élise Guilbault). Like the father of Camille (Marc Béland), that of Margaux (Patrick Goyette) will not want to lift the veil on family secrets.
Then come Thibault, good friend of Margaux and flamboyant barista of the café located on the ground floor of NOUS, as well as Alexis, who works in the urban greenhouses behind NOUS. Between the latter, who neglects his medication to the chagrin of his colleague, and Camille, who has just been hired in a travel agency managed by a former actor (Louis Champagne), it is love at first sight. You will have guessed where the agency is …
When the five twenties meet by chance at the café and then stuck in the elevator, Anaïs has a vision: babies crying in a nursery. While waiting for the help of the janitor (Ted Pluviose), they discover that they were neighbors of the nursery in May 1997. The screenwriter promises that the gifts of clairvoyance of Anaïs “will not be supported, but will serve the story” – the script-editor and the director took care of it.
Far from the anxiety Trapped, Yannick Savard created an enveloping atmosphere coupled with a caressing light, and integrated the split-screen (the split screen) sparingly in order to match the sustained rhythm of the parallel plots. “The first thing I said in meeting, he recalls, was that I felt a warm and benevolent light. That was what we originally wanted, when we were shooting in the middle of a pandemic, but I still believe that today we need this humanity. “