A few days after the broadcast of the last episode of life is more beautiful, which leaves the screens this Friday after 18 years on the air, we have seen the first chapter of this series that has had a profound impact on the public. What to measure the evolution of a program that began as a simple soap opera, before becoming a phenomenon in society.
On August 30, 2004, viewers of France 3 discovered the Mistral district and some of its inhabitants. There is the Marci family, François (Thierry Ragueneau), Blanche (Cécilia Hornus) and their teenage children, Lucas (Geoffrey Sauveaux) and Johanna (Dounia Coesens), who return from their vacation in Canada. They are tired but happy.
Lucas films his parents with a camcorder: it’s 2004. Together they wait for Roland Marci (Michel Cordes), François’s father, who must return the keys to his apartment. He is the one who runs the Mistral bar. But he is late, because he is still resting in the arms of Mirta Torres (Sylvie Flepp), owner of the Le Sélect hotel. Their secret romance is passionate.
We also meet young Rudy, a great seducer and Mirta’s grandson. And then there is also the architect Vincent Dupire, who charmed Céline Frémont, during her job interview at the Marseille town hall. The business is almost finished, he remains to convince the mayor’s assistant. Vincent planned to leave Paris to settle in Marseille, but did not tell his 17-year-old daughter Ninon (Aurélie Vaneck).
The other pillar of the series.
From the very first episode, the foundations are laid. Roland and his bar Le Mistral are at the center of intrigue. The character is a reassuring father figure and a point of reference for the protagonists.
“The other pillar of the series, inseparable from Roland’s character, is the Place du Mistral, an imaginary but typically Marseillan neighborhood where all the characters meet,” recalls the France 3 documentary. The greatest adventure of Plus belle la vieaired this November 18 at 10:50 p.m. on France 3.
Roland decides to fight to help Rachel Lévy (Colette Renard), a neighborhood figure threatened with eviction by the owner of her apartment, who wants to recover the premises to house her recently divorced son.
It is also at the Café Mistral that Vincent Dupire comes to talk about his concern after the disappearance of his daughter, who took her father’s moving project very badly. This first episode ends with a (small) climactic moment: Ninon, who slept on the beach, gets her bag stolen.
“There had to be drama”
Certain ingredients of the series are already there, the scene is set, the first protagonists are settled. But we are still a long way from what will make the success of the soap opera. Also, at the beginning, success is not at the rendezvous. The reviews are killer, the audience disappointing. “After only a few weeks of broadcast, the verdict is in, life is more beautiful It does not convince the spectators”, recalls the documentary The greatest adventure of Plus belle la vie.
“We took a bit of face at the beginning,” recalls Rebecca Hampton in this documentary on the history of the series.
“It didn’t work well because the stories weren’t sharp enough,” recalls Sylvie Flepp. “There had to be drama.”
We see it in the first episode, and in subsequent episodes, the twists are modest and not very exciting. After three months, the writers decided to create new places, like the police station, and give the series that was purring a bit of a police twist.
The Mistral becomes a ruthless
“The authors, therefore, add to the recipe for life is more beautiful the missing ingredients, cruel villains.” The Mistral then becomes a true murderer, populated by psychopaths.
Serial killers, mobsters and madmen make their entrance in the casting. The daily life of the inhabitants of the Mistral then becomes much less peaceful. And the public takes off. The turn that the series takes seduces viewers. The characters, in turn, gain depth, even if that means becoming downright disturbing.
“I still went to the psychiatric hospital, to prison,” Rebecca Hampton lists in the France 3 documentary. “Céline (her character, editor’s note) still tried to kill Ninon, I continued her with a knife!”
In fact, success allows the writers to flesh out the characters, make them more complex. And to address social issues, related to today. Homosexuality, identity, harassment, handicap, the series sharply deals with the major issues that are being debated… And it definitely moves away from the name of soap opera in the first chapter.
Source: BFM TV
