"Why I live" tells the life of Grégory Lemarchal seen by his family

Mickaël Lumière in the skin of Grégory Lemarchal -

• This Monday, TF1 broadcasts

  Why I live

  , its biopic event on the life of Grégory Lemarchal.

• The film traces the journey of the little boy, the

  Star Academy

  candidate

  and the singer.

• Producer Sébastien Charbit explains to

  20 Minutes

  the challenges that were imposed on him during the preparation of this fiction.

To say that the wait around

is immense would be an understatement.

Unveiled in mid-August, the first extract from the biopic devoted to Grégory Lemarchal has accumulated nearly four million views on TF1's social networks, the public oscillating between the skepticism of seeing the life of the one who moved France in 2004 transposed to the screen, and the desire to find it on the air.

But transcribing the life of an artist who grew up in front of the eyes of millions of viewers is not easy, and the life of the project, from its birth to its release, has not been without a hitch.

The desire to tell the story of Grégory Lemarchal was born five years ago in the mind of producer Sébastien Charbit.

A discussion ensued with his parents, Pierre and Laurence, but both replied that it was still too early for them.

Until the day when they felt ready to take the plunge.

The couple's agreement triggered the writing of different stories, including a first version with which they were comfortable, but which TF1 refused.

Adjustments were then necessary to satisfy both the chain and the family.

The impossible adaptation of a lifetime in 90 minutes

As priority interlocutors, the parents of Grégory Lemarchal had a right to examine the different stages of the creative process.

And because it's impossible to reduce a life to a TV movie, the production has had to make choices.

"They accepted that we sometimes put a step aside because telling someone's life in 90 minutes requires a storytelling exercise that is not that of a documentary, it is a rewriting", says Sébastien. Charbit.

Like a summary of reality,

tells, in a hundred sequences, the youth of Grégory, his first steps on stage, his career in

and his success as a singer, all under the prism of the eyes of his family. .

"Each sequence must reveal one thing, or even two or three, and that it is not indigestible," says the producer.

Because if we tell what happened, it will take us five or six sequences to do it, and therefore there are a lot of other things that we are not going to tell.

"

The film depicts the most significant moments in Grégory Lemarchal's life, alternating between the family intimacy of his youth and his television prowess in

.

The idea of ​​a chronological transcription of events was not considered, because “the exercise of fiction is not an exercise in documentary, but in the transmission of emotion.

Otherwise, you might as well read a Wikipedia page, ”says Sébastien Charbit.

This also explains why certain elements, which are not strictly faithful to reality, are likely to tilt with some fans.

"We are not here to play the game of seven errors with reality," recalls the producer, who preferred to focus on emotion over the copy and paste of the various elements of the

, for example.

A first sequence in the heat of the moment

The telefilm opens with the most memorable performance of Grégory Lemarchal, when he was a student at the castle of Dammarie-les-Lys.

The

notes of

 resonate and Mickaël Lumière, who plays the candidate, appears.

The pressure was enormous at that time for the actor, since it was the very first scene of the set.

The actor had no room for error, and followed this performance with the filming of the victory scene in the final.

All this in two days ...

While the production and the channel had agreed on several names to embody Grégory Lemarchal on the screen, they agreed to receive Mickaël Lumière following a proposal from the casting director.

With his slicked back hair, clothes similar to his character's and a remarkable job on the playback, he wowed the film crew.

“He was convinced that he was the best person to do that,” says Sébastien Charbit.

He came very humble but convinced.

"

The magic should probably operate between the actor and the audience of TF1, especially during his performances on the set of the

or on the stage of the Olympia.

does not fail to recall the existence of the Grégory Lemarchal association, created by his parents in 2007 with the aim of fighting against cystic fibrosis.

The film will be followed by a documentary recounting behind the scenes of the shooting and the fight of the family of Grégory, who died thirteen years ago.

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• Television

• TF1

• Star Academy

• TV movie

• Biopic