Canal + launches Monday evening "Paris Police 1900", a historical fiction which tells the beginnings of scientific techniques in the French police force, at the beginning of the 20th century.
Comedian Christian Hecq from the Comédie Française, winner of four Molières, plays the real criminologist Alphonse Bertillon.
He tells in "Culture Media" this role of bad guy.
INTERVIEW
On television,
CSI
investigated all major American cities.
The French police are preparing to go back in time with
Paris Police 1900
.
Canal + launches Monday evening the first two episodes of its new original series, a series on the beginnings of scientific methods in police investigations.
Christian Hecq of the Comédie Française, who plays the real Alphonse Bertillon there, tells in
Culture Médias
this detective series unlike any other.
>> Find Culture Médias in replay and podcast here
With this character, historical fiction does not give him the good role.
"He's a kind of bastard", confirms Christian Hecq about his character, cantankerous and anti-Semitic.
"But it's so good to play bastards. Flat things bother me."
"There were anarchists and anti-Jews, it was quite violent"
For one of President Emmanuel Macron's favorite comedians, art is about showing and amplifying his flaws.
“What's important when you play a terrible guy is that you always have to find a little thread to defend him,” he explains.
"Thanks to this little thread of humor or tenderness, we make everyone aware of their own faults".
Paris Police 1900
is certainly a fiction, but it draws on the characters and the context of the time.
"There were anarchists, there were anti-Jews. It was quite violent," observes Christian Hecq.
The teams of the series have therefore worked to transcribe as best as possible the atmosphere of this time.
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"The historical references are quite precise, especially in the sets, in the objects. The work of the props absolutely phenomenal", rejoices the actor.
Decorators and props even borrowed museum pieces to ensure historical realism.
Especially for cameras used by police officers.
"And the flash really worked with small vials of magnesium", specifies Christian Hecq.
The first season of
Paris Police 1900
begins Monday evening at 9 p.m. on Canal +.