The final clap will resound this Thursday in Marseille for the last shoot of more beautiful life. For a few weeks, the members of this audiovisual adventure have each left, with emotion, a series that has accompanied millions of viewers.
After eighteen years of broadcasting and 4,665 episodes shot, the last shot of more beautiful life will take place on Thursday afternoon at the historic studios of Belle-de-Mai, a popular neighborhood in Marseille.
The last two episodes will be broadcast on November 18 on France 3, which produces the series with the Newen company, and will be followed by a third one produced specifically for the occasion, in prime time.
“I really wanted to be part of the last comma” of the adventure, says Clément Cescau, a member of the post-production team, from his editing office, above the large studio that houses the emblematic Marseille bar on the Mistral where the main characters of the series are found.
He is in charge of finishing the visual edition of the last episode broadcast in “prime time”.
“After a while, the series gets into everyone’s life,” says who knew his wife, a costume designer, during the twelve years of companionship with more beautiful life.
“Huge Pride”
“In the end, it is a huge pride, both in what the series has become, what we did and what the project raised” in terms of social problems, says Clément Cescau, referring to the first homosexual characters represented, as well as to the various forms of discrimination addressed throughout the episodes. This popular series drew up to six million viewers on select nights in 2008.
“I wanted to say goodbye to the team, as director,” testifies for her part Claire de La Rochefoucauld, 50, who exceptionally returned behind the camera for the last scene of “historical” characters, Blanche and François Marci, played by Cécilia Hornus. and Thierry Ragueneau.
The one who was an episode director for fourteen years took on the role of producer in 2022, in particular to take charge of this “difficult” moment at the end of the series and “emotionally support” the teams, “her family here”. , she explains.
“It’s Still Sad”
Every day, the editing teams produced a 26-minute episode, which imposed a very sustained rhythm that was disproportionate to the rhythms of non-everyday series and movies.
“We have to move on, I know, but it’s still sad. It’s a nice series, a nice team,” laments Carole Bourrelly, one of the three hairdressers who cares for the actors every day along with the dressmakers and make-up artists. .
After ten years at the head of a hairdressing school in the temple of Bollywood cinema in India, the 51-year-old from Marseillais started in more beautiful life in 2018.
When you arrive it’s like getting into a moving TGV”, explains the woman who combs ten or twelve people a day in one of the white rooms with sofas and mirrors where the actors wait before joining the shoot.
economic contribution
“It’s a wonderful school that teaches efficiency”, adds Claire de La Rochefoucauld in one of the six studies dedicated to the series: “to direct an actor, instead of saying four sentences, you learn to say a word, because you have to go Quick”.
Almost 600 people worked each year on the series and 3,232 actors in total, to which we must add the extras, participated in the filming, an important economic contribution for Marseille, a city whose series “frustrated a certain number of negative images”, he stressed. in the spring the president of the Tourist Office Marc Thépot.
Claire de La Rochefoucauld expresses the hope that “this family is forming a network” to continue working together and “that in Marseille there are no problems with the teams”.
this to [eux de se] renew and preserve ties over time,” he said.
Source: BFM TV
