The investigation office of "UFO (s)" and the new trio of "Small Murders of Agatha Christie".
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Nicolas Velter / Montebello Productions / Canal + / Escazal Films / France Télévisions
The new season of
Small Murders by Agatha Christie
, launched this Friday on France 2, takes place in the 1970s, just like
Ovni (s)
, the last born of the original creations of Canal +.
The colorful and playful aesthetic of the Seventies appeals to producers.
If the series takes hold of the 1970s, it is also because those years say something about our time.
While Valérie Giscard D'Estaing has just definitively said "goodbye" to the French, French fiction succumbs to the charm of the Seventies.
Season 3 of Les
Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie
, launched this Friday on France 2, set up its new police station in 1972 while
UFO (s
), the last born of the original Canal + creations, available on MyCanal, set up its office in alien investigations in 1978.
If the fictions go back in time, it is because “the series take again the receipts of other television programs.
Their action is placed at the time of the birth of the target audience.
They play on nostalgia ”, analyzes François Jost, author of
What are American series the symptom of
?
(CNRS Editions).
Welcome to the France of the 1970s!
A time when we smoke in the office, we listen to Radio Monte-Carlo, we rest in Emmanuelle's armchair and we type with the typewriter.
The playful side of the 1970s
“They had made a book from the 1970s. It was great because there were things that we knew and saw again.
We thought we were in
Starsky and Hutch
with the pie shovel collars, the waders, the orange decor with brown circles, the record players ”, rejoices Anne Holmes, the director of fiction of France 2 about the change of period of the
Small Murders of Agatha Christie
.
"The fact of being able to dive back into the 1970s and the design of the machines of that time was offered to us as a toy", abounds Anthony Cordier, the director of
UFO (s)
.
"The dictatorship of coolness was the 1970s," said Sophie Révil, who produced the France Télévisions series.
An era with "general enthusiasm"
“We wanted to explore a world we never knew, the one our parents grew up in, this twilight France of the Thirty Glorious Years where things were starting to change and where certainties began to waver and where had a general enthusiasm, something not cynical ”, explains Martin Douaire, co-creator of
UFO (s)
.
An energy and an optimism that we are probably sorely needed now: "There was a real scientific gold rush at the time, on progress, a possibility of being in utopias, in beliefs, to say that maybe we would spontaneously discover something that would profoundly change our life.
There was an opening ”, marvels Martin Douaire.
An era deeply connected to today
The 1970s bear the seeds of our world, which a new generation is trying to understand: “It was a time when we discovered lots of new things, which have since been corrected a little.
It was the revolution of plastics, of the electronic maximum, of hyperconsumption.
I have the impression that this is a period that we are correcting today, ”considers Thylacine, the composer of the UFO soundtrack (s
)
.
Fueling nostalgia is not the only reason for this craze for the 1970s. “A period series is only interesting if it talks about today.
Period series, as we used to do, a little frozen in formalin, are of no interest, ”emphasizes Sophie Révil.
The 1970s allow us to question our time
While the question of feminism and masculinity titillates the 2020s, the 1970s are precisely characterized by the second feminist wave and "triumphant machismo", recalls Sophie Revil.
And to give some information on the intrigue of this new era: “We imagined that in 1972, there was an experiment carried out at the Lille police station and that the first woman commissioner in France was appointed there.
In reality, the competition for commissioner was only opened to women in 1974. "
Same story with UFO (s).
"This series tells about the origins of many things, of our own world, and the origins of the crisis, of the masculine crisis, of men, the redefinition of the figure of the father and also the crisis of the family and the future. blended families who are our daily lives today, ”analyzes director Anthony Cordier.
“We are telling a story that takes place forty years ago and that echoes today.
The fact that there is distance alleviates things a bit, ”underlines Emilie Gavois-Kahn, who plays the heroine of season 3 of Les
Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie
.
Beyond the funky and colorful side of the Tam Tam stools of the seventies, if vintage acrylic turtlenecks are so encrusted in today's series, it is because they allow you to scratch everything. smoothly the times we live in.
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