Dream Lives of Others: Do you know the second movie about the same terrible news that happened in 2003?

News still fascinates viewers. Last night, France 2 easily came to the top of the audience with the TV movie The Dream Life of Others, notably starring Arthur Dupont and Caroline Anglade, which attracted an average of 3.41 million curious viewers. The 1.99 million faithful gathered ahead of the series finale of The Resident on TF1 are well ahead.

If the plot of this unitary film directed by Didier Le Pecheur (Infidèle, Addict) tells you anything, that’s okay, because The Dream Life of Others is loosely inspired by the Flactif case, the sordid story that rocked Haute-Savoie in 2003.

A case that made headlines and inspired screenwriters

In April 2003, a French criminal case in Grand-Bornand in Haute-Savoie hit the headlines. Real estate developer Xavier Flecktiff, 41, his wife Graziella Ortolano, 36, and their three children Grigor (7), Leticia (9) and Sara (10) have disappeared without a trace.

Investigators first thought of a possible abduction before ruling out a possible flight abroad because of professional and financial problems the father was experiencing. Finally, on May 5 of the same year, the scientific police found a small trace of blood in the chalet where the family lived. This trace contains the DNA of five missing persons. But other DNA, which has not been identified, is also present at the site. An investigation months later revealed that it belonged to Flactiff’s killer: David Hotiatt.

A tenant in a house owned by Xavier Flactif, Hotiat confesses to killing five family members out of jealousy. Because he envied this “dream life” that Flactif seemed to lead on the surface. After committing this murder, he sought help from his wife, Alexandra Lefebvre, as well as several friends, Haremza, who were sentenced to 5, 7, and 10 years in prison. And David Hotiat was sentenced to life in prison with 22 years of security.

Cast by Arthur Dupont ( Agatha Christie’s Little Murders ), Charlie Bruno ( En Famille ), Caroline Anglade ( Plancha ) and Jean-Claude Mouaka ( En Place ), The Dream Lives of Others freely returns to this work, especially with a twist. character names

The TV movie, extremely charming and well-acted, shows the destructive action of jealousy between two families with diametrically opposite worldviews: the Petits, a modest family that dreams of the high life, and the Fletiottes, the bourgeois who fight every day to save their family. Real estate project.

But did you know that a feature film released in theaters in 2012 already had the same story, with very popular actors in the lead roles?

Another look at Alexandra Lamm and Julie Depardieu’s case in Possessions?

Released in theaters on March 7, 2012, less than a decade after the Grand Bornade massacre, Possessions, directed by Eric Guirado (Grocery Son), also returns to the Flactif case. The film features Marilyn and Bruno Caron’s characters, who, under the impression that Patrick Casting is being treated without consideration by the promoter who rents them a chalet in the mountains, spiral into a typically murderous frenzy out of bitterness. And they feel jealous.

In the cast of Possessions, we find Jeremy Rainier and Jules Depardieu in the shoes of the Caron couple, and Lucien Jean-Baptiste and Alexandra Lamis as Patrick and Gladys in a Fluctif-inspired casting.

A fine cast for a film with a heavy atmosphere and a somewhat different treatment from Didier Le Pecheur’s Living the Dream of Others.

Indeed, in addition to painting a much less flattering portrait of the victims than the France 2 television film, Possessions, available on DVD and VOD, chooses an approach that favors the psychology of the characters to the detriment of reconstruction.

The result is a harrowing drama, set against a backdrop of excessive debt, that condemns especially the society of consumption and lust in which we live.