• From

    Lupine

    to

    HPI

    via

    In therapy

    , the French series were a hit in 2020-2021.

  • "The last decade has seen the evolution of the 'new French wave' on television," said the BBC.

  • 20 Minutes looks

    back every day of the week on the great French successes that marked the year 2020-2021.

Long before

Les RevENTS

 or

Le Bureau des Légendes

,

Engrenages

, Canal + 's first Original Creation, the "Last Chapter" of which was broadcast in France in the fall of 2020, was a pioneer in the renewal of French fiction.

Sold in nearly seventy countries, when it was created in 2005, it was one of the rare French series to be exported.

Caroline Proust, unforgettable captain Laure Berthaud, returned for

20 Minutes

during the Monte-Carlo Television Festival, on this series which has turned the world of made in France fictions upside down.

Did you foresee the success of “Engrenages” when you discovered the first scenarios about fifteen years ago?

Sure ! 

(laughs)

When we launch something, we say to ourselves: “This is going to be a huge success”, right?

Obviously not!

It's a great surprise and above all the surprise of the Anglo-Saxons who instantly acclaimed us.

I still did my first actress interview in a series for the

Times

, I had a portrait in the

Guardian

before having it in

Le Monde

and in

Libé

 !

This Anglo-Saxon consecration was brilliant!

Do you think there is a form of contempt for the French press in relation to French series?

I have the impression that we are in a country where success is not something that is popular.

When you do something that works, whatever the profession - on the observation that I have things but I believe that I am not mistaken - it is a bit difficult with the recognition of success.

But I want to specify that the French press was unanimous regarding

Gears

from season 1 to season 8, we were praised.

I'm talking about personal success, portraits.

There is a very different way of doing things in the United States and in England.

How do you analyze the success of “Engrenages”?

We had the feeling of being pioneers. Canal + gave us the possibility of doing things that were not authorized on the other channels, in terms of game, scenario and lighting. We made an image that was not glamorous, especially for my character. The character of Josephine, played by Audrey Fleurot, was a lawyer, so she presented well. My character, Laure, was a woman in a world of men who considered that she had to blend in. It didn't have to be sophisticated at all. It's not in my nature to be sophisticated anyway, so the cast played a big role in that.

It is the combination of all these things that made and made the success of this series.

And the complicity between the actors, who came from a place called the theater, the most beautiful place you can come from when you are an actor and which forces humility.

Theater actors are passionate, they do not do this job to be in the image.

When I started working as an actress, I never thought I would ever be in front of a camera.

Really, when I say that, it's very sincere.

The first time someone came, when I was at the Montpellier Conservatory, it surprised me.

I did not think about it.

As you say “Engrenages” was a pioneering series, what has it brought to the history of French television?

Canal + was a channel unlike any other, on which a freedom was clearly visible, with programs like

Nulle Part Ailleurs

, Les Nuls, or even

Message of an informative nature,

a very improbable thing that made us howl with laughter. Canal + was a very permissive channel, and when they decided to embark on the series, we were allowed to do things that we weren't allowed to do on the other channels. We really had vets on the other channels, I worked for TF1 at the time, we had to say "Stop there, rascal!" ", it was written. We would say: "No, if I play that, it will be wrong, it does not work!" And that's where

Engrenages

changed things.

When Audrey arrives, she says, "I want to do a series, but give me the freedom to work on the scripts and change the dialogue if I see that it doesn't work."

She succeeds in enforcing that.

It's

Engrenages

that made it happen and it's great.

With

Engrenages

, we understood that the actors were not there to pull the cover for themselves but to be at the service of the production of the series.

It took a long time to understand this, even within

Engrenages

, it was not until season 5 that we started working with screenwriter Anne Landois, because Vassili Clert said: "We must do as the Americans do."

And suddenly, the writers wrote the fiction according to the characters.

How do you live after “Engrenage”?

When you have played a character like Laure, so strong, gone through all these roller coasters of emotion, what is left of her?

Yes, there is something left of Laure.

What goes away and relieves me is this constant worry.

The job of a police officer is a very difficult job, I have experienced it in my flesh.

That's why I made this documentary,

Gears in the Skin

, because it damaged me a bit.

Finally, all the characters damage you from the moment they are complex characters, who experience rich things and you interpret them as if they were you, it leaves traces.

A character who is a police officer is difficult, because what the police see is difficult.

So, yes, it leaves traces.

But what is extraordinary is the return and the love that I have thanks to this character and this series.

It's great because actually I feel like I'm like a snail, I left a big trail behind me that shines.

It's very nice.

And a lot of people took advantage of the confinement to catch up with "Engrenages" ...

There are plenty of people who discovered

Gears

during the lockdown, yes.

I get messages from people who are super fans and say "thank you" to me.

And even that it really helped them.

So I tell myself that's why we do this job, that we do theater.

We're here to tell stories and reach out to people.

And with

Engrenages

, we really achieved that.

Is there a French series that touched you during confinement?

I saw

In therapy

, I loved it because there, everything is based on the script and the acting.

The realization is very simple.

We come back to the theater in fact.

We are in an economy of means.

I find the interpretation to be very successful.

It's no wonder she was so successful.

HPI

has also had phenomenal success, all the ingredients are there and it works very well.

I spoke with Audrey yesterday who told me that she got involved in writing a lot.

I find it great that we trust the actors and that we see what happens.

It really has nothing to do with this success.

The ingredient of the super-grandpa vacuuming in 12cm heels, I don't believe it at all, but that's okay, we are in a fiction that makes you dream.

It's great.

Your projects after “Engrenages”?

As an actress, I shoot a series for Netflix,

Notre-Dame, la part du feu

[series that will look back on the fire that hit the cathedral in April 2019].

I am very happy with this project because my partners are wonderful, as is the director.

It is quite promising.

Otherwise, I am an apprentice producer and I am developing a miniseries for which I will look for a broadcaster.

I co-directed a short film with Etienne Saldés, who is currently competing in the Short Film Gallery for Unifrance.

So, I am very happy.

Series

“Engrenages” will be back on Canal +

Series

“Engrenages”: “It's complicated to stop what has been such a great story,” says Caroline Proust

  • Series

  • Gears

  • Canal Plus

  • Monte Carlo TV Festival