“66-5”, the title of the new Canal+ series, launched this Monday evening, is deliberately cryptic. “I wanted to intrigue, a bit like L.627the film by Bertrand Tavernier, whose title also refers to a legal text and which has become a classic of detective cinema,” assumes screenwriter Anne Landois, met Thursday at the La Rochelle Fiction Festival (Charente-Maritime) .
“66-5” is the article linked to professional secrecy of lawyers. “It corresponds to the foundations of the profession, they care very much about it. It sums up well the difficulty of this profession: when do we say things or not,” continues the creator of this eight-episode series.
Anne Landois had the ambition to “renew the legal series”. “I like this environment, I spend a lot of time in audiences. There is a very strong human substance, we go deep into the psyche of individuals. When you’re a screenwriter, it’s a gold mine. » To prepare this new fiction, she attended several hearings with Clarice Serre, the criminal lawyer who already advised her on “Engrenages” for which she worked for ten years. “I told myself that there were things to do about the rise of young lawyers,” explains the designer. Initially, I had imagined a gallery of characters but, ultimately, I preferred to tell the story of a young woman who starts in the profession and must establish herself. »
Alice Isaaz wondered if she was going to be “believable”
This character is Roxane, 32 years old, who, when the public meets her in episode 1, has not yet pleaded. She is played by Alice Isaaz. “I was the first to wonder if I was going to be credible, especially since I look younger than my age,” confides the actress to 20 minutes. I was wondering this because I was lulled by series where the lawyers are 40 or 50 years old and are already established in the profession. »
To prepare for this role and “understand the atmosphere of a hearing”, she attended immediate appearances at the Bobigny court (Seine-Saint-Denis) – where the action of “66-5” partly takes place. “I realized that all the lawyers who were pleading were very young. Many come to learn their skills there after leaving the bar. This confirmed to me that it was interesting to angle a series on this. »
What adds “thickness and nuance” to Roxane is that she is a class defector, that is to say she has changed social background. The heroine grew up in a housing estate in Bobigny and ended up joining a Parisian business firm. Her planned journey is derailed when her husband – and colleague – finds himself accused of rape. “She thought she had acquired legitimacy and realized that she did not have it as soon as the accusations against her husband fell and she was asked to step aside,” underlines Anne Landois.
“Reverse Class Defector”
Circumstances lead the thirty-year-old to reconnect with the town where she spent her childhood and the people she met there when she was younger. She ended up making her first plea there. “What interested me was the reversed class defector,” adds the screenwriter. Roxane leaves her environment to emancipate herself, but it is by being brought back to her original environment that she finds her emancipation. “66-5” tells of the conquest of a space, a profession, a name. »
And if the series has as its main character a lawyer and not a lawyer, it is not a simple question of circumstances. “A woman does not plead, does not say things, in the same way as a man,” says Anne Landois. Roxane, in her first pleading mixes technicality, a personal story, knowledge of an environment. » Defendants from working-class neighborhoods are increasingly choosing women to defend them, she assures: “They understood that it was to them that they should be entrusted with their defense. They are one step ahead of “better born” people. »