Les Combattantes on TF1: This scene that was a nightmare for Audrey Fleuro

After four weeks of broadcasting, Les Combattantes, TF1’s historical event mini-series, concludes tonight with the final two episodes, which must have been eagerly awaited by all viewers who have followed with interest the adventures of Marguerite (Audrey Fleurot), Mother Agnes. (Juli de Bona), Suzanne (Camille Lu) and Carolina (Sophia Essaide) from the beginning.

It focuses on the fate of four women – a prostitute, a nunnery, a runaway nurse and a bourgeois who becomes the head of the family factory after the death of her husband – in the first months of the Great War. In 1914, Les Combattantes takes some of the elements that made it a charity market success and manages to brilliantly mix historical, romantic and soap facts.

But the new series, produced by Iris Boucher and directed by Alexandre Laurent, has much more scenes than Le Bazar. It was a real technical challenge for the whole team, as Audrey Flerot told us recently, giving Sofia Essaide one of the biggest laughs on set.

“We have a lot of exterior scenes that weren’t in Le Bazar de la Charité. It’s a process to stage every time because there are so many elements to consider.”It was really explained to us by Marguerite de Lancastle’s interpreter, before leading to a specific scenario that was extremely difficult to film.

“There’s a scene in particular where we’re in a village square and we have to film the ambulances arriving, you have to know they’re vintage ambulances, so it’s a mess to drive without a name. The steering wheel is on. On the other hand, all your bearings are messed up, it stops all the time”The HPI and Les Combattantes star continues, pointing to a sequence in Episode 4 in which paramedics carry wounded soldiers to St. Paul after the German army storms them.

“We have a procession of ambulances coming into the square, then we have horses that have to go through at a certain moment. Then it’s time for the soldiers to go through. And then we know that the plane will be added with special effects. We have to stop in exactly one place. Play the scene with another character. And finally reload and then come back. You know if you mess up, the team has half an hour to fix it. Everyone’s in place because there’s 150 extras and horses.”.

“Even if it is a stage of relative figure, because there is not much to play specifically (laughs), we have a big responsibility, because we have to be careful not to stop, to stop well in a good place, not to beat someone. So you’re stressed all the way through, you’re very careful every step of the way to succeed, and at the end, when you start over, you stop and you know that everyone hates you, because it really takes half an hour to put everything in place there (laughs. )”.

From there, to think that Audrey Floro, whose character Margarita drives one of the ambulances during this scene and briefly replaces Caroline (Sofia Essaide) before leaving, actually stopped to film this scene is just one step that might explain why she didn’t keep it very well. memory.

“In the cinema, we would spend a day on this scene, but we, on a series like this, have four to do in a day”concludes Audrey Fleuro. “A scene like this can’t stand approximations. Everything has to be really choreographed. Otherwise it’s approximations. It’s a nightmare.”.

Fortunately, overall, the Les Combattantes adventure seems to have been quite remarkable for the four cast members of the series. So much so that Audrey Fleureau is not against returning for a third series with the Bazar de la Charité team: “What Iris Butcher told me about is very exciting. I think it’s a good idea because it’s very refreshing to the form. Why not?”. We don’t know much more about this third project in development. The case will follow.