The broadcast of the 4th season of the Bureau des légendes begins this Monday evening on Canal +. The secret of the cult series of Canal +? The obsession with the detail, even in the decorations, copy (almost) conform of the seat of the DGSE. We visited them, a few months ago, with a group of subscribers from Ouest-France, invited by the chain to play spies, through our site LaPlace.
"You will visit the DGSE in real life. When their representatives come, they are very comfortable ... and very uncomfortable to feel at home here at home, laughs Alex Berger, the producer of the Bureau des légendes , in front of Western subscribers -France invited to visit the sets of the famous series of Canal +, via our website LaPlace.
The broadcast of season 4 begins this Monday night on Canal +. In this new season of the series of espionage created by Eric Rochant for Canal +, it will be about cyberwar, Russia, French jihadists.
The filming of the latter was completed at the end of May. Since then, the interior decorations, built on a 1000m2 plateau of the Cité du Cinéma, in Saint-Denis, are again in the shadows. Eric Rochant, co-producer, director and "showrunner" of the series, is already writing a fifth season, lining the walls of his post-it office of colors.
In 2013, just before creating The Bureau of Legends, the two men had requested an interview with the Directorate General of External Security. Received at the headquarters of the big house, boulevard Mortier, in Paris, they had access only to a whole part of the building.
"We must leave all electronic devices at the entrance, but our head designer who has an exceptional photographic memory, was with us, says Axel Berger. On leaving, he took a notebook and began to draw everything he had seen. "
Real spies are fans
The result stunned the representatives of the DGSE who then accessed the filming locations. "They thought somebody from home had given us photos. Our linoleum was newer than theirs, but for the rest, everything was identical . We explained to them our little secret. Since then, our decorator is no longer welcome at home! "
Éric Rochant and Alex Berger return there, once a year, "to project the first two episodes of each new season". History of how French agents find the adventures of Malotru (played by Mathieu Kassovitz) and his colleagues. "Every time, they tell us how good we are. It's a very moving moment for us. "
It is also an opportunity "to observe their ways of speaking, to move, to collect small human details that help us", admits Éric Rochant, whose obsession with realism has given a tone to no other in the Office des legends. The opposite of its American cousins 24 hours chrono or Homeland , the French series is recognized and appreciated for its likelihood. Broadcast by Canal + , followed in 100 countries, "she has fans in intelligence agencies around the world," smiled Alex Berger.
Cross Inspirations
Including at the DGSE, of course, that the creations of the series also inspire. "They renamed their clandestine service, his real name, in the office of legends, more poetic. The scenery of this famous service, inaccessible to external visitors, is a pure creation. The glass cube that is there and hosts the crisis meetings of the series, would have pleased the French agents.
Have they done the same on their premises? Nobody knows. As we do not know if they have code names. In the series, nicknames of the characters are drawn from the catalog of insults of Captain Haddock (Malotru, Boit-without-thirsty, Mold-à-Gauffres ...). Another fantasy of the writers.
"The spies of the DGSE do not tell us anything, Eric Rochant fun when asked the question. They know how to keep secrets, and when they talk to you, you have a 50% chance that it's wrong! No sources of inspiration are public; they are everywhere: in books, newspapers ... And we make our imagination work. "