Fiction events and many stars its pink carpet! While the festival-goers of CanneSéries will discover this Wednesday evening at the end of the closing ceremony the first episodes of the final season of Gomorra, 20 minutes takes stock of six days of projections, very rich. Our favorites of this season 4 of the Riviera festival.
“Mister 8”, a stylized marivaudage
A stylized Finnish marivaudage in black and white! Mister 8, our big crush of the long format competition at CanneSéries, follows the adventures of Maria (Krista Kosonen who renews the archetype of the femme fatale), CEO of a family business which has the distinction of not having one, but seven spouses. Each of them is contractually assigned by the businesswoman on a day of the week. When she meets and falls under the spell of Juho (Pekka Strang), an engineer who has just moved to the city, her well-organized life will change… A dark romantic comedy, which shakes up the codes both narratively and visually.
“Countrymen”, a wacky and transgressive comedy
A completely crossed out Norwegian series, presented at CanneSéries in official competition! Countrymen, a series co-produced by Arte and the Norwegian channel NRK, follows the tribulations of a Muslim gang with broken arms and a terrorist cell, who settle in the countryside on a farm to prepare their cruel designs. In order not to arouse suspicion about their real activities among the inhabitants, they embark on the production of halal cheese. Will the warm welcome of the inhabitants of the village and the success of their cheese company succeed in dissuading them from implementing their initial plan? This transgressive, zany and jubilant comedy is served by a narration and a staging at 100 per hour. A lesson in corrosive tolerance not to be missed soon on Arte.
“Totems”, a classy spy fresco
A classy and ambitious fresco of espionage against a backdrop of the Cold War in the France of General De Gaulle. Presented in official competition at CanneSeries, Totems, created and written by Juliette Soubrier (Zoned White) and Olivier Dujols (The Legends Office, Falco), follows the adventures of Francis Mareuil (Niels Schneider), space engineer at CNES, mandated by his godfather (Lambert Wison), who works in the secret services of the SDECE (the ancestor of the DGSE) to approach, during a congress in Berlin, a Russian scientist likely to move west. Married by obligation to his love of youth Anne (Ana Girardot), galvanized by his beginnings in espionage, Francis Mareuil wasted no time in succumbing to the charm of the daughter of the Russian scientist, Lyudmila Goloubeva, pianist prodigy forced to collaborate with the KGB. How not to betray the interests of their respective countries and resist the feelings they have for each other? A game of pretenses skillfully mixing geopolitics and intimate, sublimated by a polished and ultra-referenced staging, to be discovered soon on Amazon Prime Video.
“Around the World in Eighty Days”, a great epic adventure
A modern and ambitious adaptation of the adventures of Phileas Fogg imagined by Jules Verne. In this new co-production by L’Alliance, presented out of competition at CanneSeries, Around the world in eighty days, Phileas Fogg (masterfully played by the Scottish David Tennant) is a British gentleman who shows great vulnerability, Passepartout (Ibrahim Koma, hilarious and inspired), a lively and clever Frenchman with a troubled past, and Inspector Fix has become Abigail Fix (Leonie Benesch, bright and full of energy), a young journalist determined to cover the adventure of the century, embark on a tour of the globe rich in twists and turns. A hectic epic that will delight young and old alike to discover soon on France 2.
“Hudson Falls”, a black and poisonous series
A tribute to the classic detective series of the 1960s and 1970s! With Hudson falls, presented in the official competition in the short series category, the filmmaker Elias Plagianos pays homage to the classic detective series of the 1960s and 1970s. The series follows a detective Ray McClane (Richard Kind, impeccable in this role which recalls the heyday of Columbo) , who came to Hudson Falls to reconnect with his ex-wife (Jessica Hecht), and who will find herself more or less involved in a murder case … A black series, much more than a simple whodunit, which explores the ambiguity of human relationships. To be discovered soon on Amazon Prime Video.
“The Guardians of Justice”, a satire of the superhero genre
A crazy project! With The Guardians of Justice, the new Hollywood prodigy, Adi Shankar (Castelvania) signs a declaration of love for all pop culture, from comics books to the age of video games. Mixing live-action, eight styles of 2D animation, clay animation and pixel art, The Guardians of Justice features Marvelous Man, an alien superhero who has kept peace on Earth for forty years. A visually abundant satire, selected in the official competition in the short series category, where off-center superheroes are emblematic of a world in full decline, to be discovered soon on Netflix.