Place du Mistral, Panier district, Marseille, January 2023. After building collapses, Place du Mistral was rebuilt. Its eponymous bar has been rebuilt. The hotel has given way to a residence for students and young workers, and a medical office has been set up. Thus begins this January 8 the new plot of “Plus belle la vie, even plus belle” taken up by TF1 after the cessation of its broadcast by France 3, on November 18, 2022.
To win back its audience which had significantly eroded between 2017 and 2022, going from 4.5 million to 2.7 million viewers, the production relied on a new broadcast schedule at 1:40 p.m., the complete renewal of the sets – forced renewal by the deconstruction of old sets – and new blood on the side of the actors. And in order to consolidate its audience figures, TF1 also plans to launch its free online streaming service on the same day as the program’s resumption.
“We have renewed half of the actors in the series but also the pool of 25 to 30 authors who work on the scenarios,” explains Clémentine Planchon, producer of the series at Newen. And if this revival is described as “season 1 of a nineteen-year-old series”, however, there is no question of completely changing the DNA of the series. “PBLV is idealized neighborhood life and the ability to take on social issues.” We remember that the series was, in 2005, the first to show a gay kiss in a French mainstream soap opera and that of the first gay marriage in 2013.
Interlude dramas
The fact remains that this year of interruption of the program has left its mark on the actors. Marwan Berreni, alias Abdel Fedala in the series, whom the production wanted to keep in its new version, committed suicide in the summer of 2023. A gesture also committed by Michel Cordes, who played Roland, the historic boss of the Mistral. If Roland’s absence from the restart did not have an impact on the new narrative arcs, his character having already died in the series, Abdel’s disappearance “will be handled in a delicate manner”, the production said. The program can, however, rely on Thomas Marci (played by Laurent Kerusoré), Roland’s son in the series, a history of PBLV, who becomes boss of the new bar Mistral.
This resumption of filming, which began again last October after the forced construction of new sets, is also good news for the Marseille film economy, of which PBLV is the driving force. Each day of filming, around 120 to 150 technicians work in the studios, and nearly 200 people including actors and writers. Over the year, the series employs nearly 600 intermittent entertainment workers.