This is a great first for France 3. Never until the broadcast of Parasite, at 9:05 pm on Monday, the channel had not programmed a South Korean film in prime time. Should we still present this feature film by Bong Joon-ho? Leaving the 2019 Cannes Film Festival with the Palme d’Or and then the Oscars, a few months later, with four statuettes, including that of best film and best director, it attracted nearly 2 million people in French cinemas.
Despite its aura of instant classic, its broadcast in the most exposed time slot of French television is for France 3 a “bet”, believes Manuel Alduy, the director of cinema within the program directorate of France Televisions. “It’s still very different from what we usually offer,” he admits. We are also in a context of the beginning of the holidays, we will have to see how it goes. “
Successful palm
If we look at the most recent audience scores of the last Palme d’Or, the results are mixed. A family matter, crowned in 2018, gathered 1.06 million people on Arte on May 26. On the same channel, a year earlier, The Square, awarded in 2017, had to be content with 669,000 curious. May 19, 2019 Me, Daniel Blake, awarded in 2016, had been followed on France 2 by 2.35 million moviegoers, far behind the 6 million who, at the same time, preferred him Sully with Tom Hanks on TF1. As for Dheepan, last French Palm to date, he had, in November 2018, with 1.8 million viewers, allowed the second channel to finish at the foot of the podium dominated that evening by TF1 thanks to the 5.87 million fans of the Tuche 2.
However, it is important to remember that Parasite is much more unifying than the films cited. It is the biggest success of a Palme d’Or at the French box office in the 21st century, after Fahrenheit 9/11, documentary with 2.4 million admissions in 2004. “Each time we think we are getting ahead of the plot, the director finds a way to thwart expectations and replace them with his more original and cheeky ideas. than the others. He does not leave time to breathe, neither to the public, nor even to his characters ”, wrote Caroline Vié, film journalist of 20 minutes when the film had just been screened on the Croisette. She promised the best fate to this “well-dressed” fable which “makes you want to go back there immediately”.
“No side”
“ Parasite, it’s a great story and very accessible for an audience that is not necessarily used to South Korean cinema ”, underlines Manuel Alduy who is counting on the“ magnifying effect ”of the Cannes Film Festival, the 74th edition of which is opening. Tuesday “so that the public take the risk of coming to see it” on France 3. “We have already taken steps aside on films which, on paper, were not necessarily obvious for a broadcast on a free-to-air channel . I think of Tickling, on the subject of violence against children, which in March reached 3.7 million viewers when he was not a millionaire in theaters. “
Parasite will also be available for catch-up on France.tv for a week. “We want to give ourselves the chance that it reaches the widest possible audience”, slips the director of cinema at France Teles. The mission seems far from impossible. On the other hand, France 3 will broadcast this Monday, at 11:15 p.m., just after the film by Bong Joon-ho, Happy End by Michael Haneke. Left empty-handed from the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, this film had barely exceeded 85,000 tickets to theaters. This is the other – the main one? – channel programming bet.