Shirley Monsarrat, new director of “Skam France” -
© Xavier Thesnon-Hily
Shirley Monsarrat is the new face of the realization of the next seasons of
Skam France
.
The filmmaker previously worked in advertising or in music videos, and succeeds David Hourrègue at the head of the francetv slash series.
"We wanted to bring comedy all the more in this rather dark period that we are going through", she confides in her first interview with
20 Minutes
.
She took over the reins of one of the most powerful French series.
Since Monday,
Skam France
fans have
discovered the paw of Shirley Monsarrat, the new director of francetv slash fiction who succeeded David Hourrègue (himself at the helm of the first six seasons).
After writing her first short film,
5150 Hold
, at age 18, Shirley Monsarrat cut her teeth in advertising and music videos, for artists Madjo and As We Fall in particular.
In 2020, David Hourrègue asks Shirley Monsarrat if he can submit his name to the production to take his place.
A month later, and after several hours of discussions with the producer, the filmmaker learns that she officially becomes the director of the series.
She gives
20 Minutes
her first interview in this new role.
How was your first day of shooting?
It was stressful because going after David is something.
I admire his work, he gave so much energy to this program.
Skam
, these are super dense days, everything went very quickly.
In addition, we started this first day quite intensely since we were shooting the teaser for season 8. A teaser is always eagerly awaited so there was all the more pressure as we started with an artistically ambitious sequence. .
We were immediately in the bath of what can be
Skam
!
What is the theme for this season?
It will probably not be that denial of pregnancy ...
Yes, it is obviously the denial of pregnancy that we introduce from the teaser.
After that, is that the only theme…?
What we can say is that there is always a reason behind denial of pregnancy, so other problems potentially arise.
There are obviously family issues.
How did the reflection on this subject come about?
Was this a topic you wanted to cover personally?
This is a subject that Deborah Hassoun, the new collection director, wanted to tackle.
On
Skam
, each year, they think about themes that could affect one or more characters and the denial of pregnancy was on the list.
Deborah absolutely wanted to talk about it because it is little known and rare, and because it is ultimately very surprising.
Based on the messages we are receiving at the moment, we see that this is a subject that interests young people.
Some people discover that it exists and do not know that it is possible to give birth without knowing it.
We said to ourselves that this is a subject that we should talk about today in France.
Season 6 was very dark.
According to the first extracts, we are moving away this year ...
Yes, it was a starting desire.
I wanted to do something different too.
And it is also the universe of Deborah Hassoun who appreciates comedy and who writes it very well.
Our goal was to create a universe that sits between drama and comedy.
We both liked the idea of talking about serious topics with a certain lightness.
That does not prevent there will be more emotionally intense scenes, which are closer to season 6, but we also wanted to bring comedy all the more into this rather dark period that we are going through.
We wanted to breathe this little bubble of positive air by thinking of the staging, the lighting, the editing and the music in this sense.
Besides, we had the chance to work with a composer, Owlle, it's a first in
Skam
.
His pop musical universe is similar to the one we had imagined for this season 7. Together, we also asked other mainly French artists to complete the soundtrack.
There are so many talents in France that it seemed obvious and important to us to hear them in
Skam France
.
It was a real collaborative effort in all positions to succeed in creating this universe, this softer tone that was important to us, while addressing important topics.
Choosing Tiffany as the lead role when she was a loathsome character in the previous season is daring, isn't it?
I liked Tiffany because I like the characters that we like to hate.
I found it interesting to develop it because there is always something behind wickedness.
I wanted us to love her and I hope that we will have succeeded in this challenge at the end of season 7, that we can have empathy for her and understand this character who was ultimately underdeveloped. in season 6. What I like about
Skam
is that there are always surprises.
Tiffany was one of them, and Lucie [Fagedet] is an excellent actress, I knew she could wear this season, I was sure she would take up the challenge.
When you took over the project, what was your first desire?
I come back to lightness and humor.
The period plays a lot.
We started preparing for the series in the midst of Covid, everyone was in good spirits and that contributed to the overall desire to bring light, enthusiasm, and the positive to young people who watch
Skam
.
The fans are very attached to the series.
Did you have the curiosity to go see what was being said on social networks in real time?
Of course, and I'm not the only one!
It's always interesting because we want to surprise them, to please them too.
It is the strength of the concept of
Skam
to have an immediate look at the work that we have been able to carry out for months.
It's impossible not to be interested in it.
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