A devoted friend : Max’s series about the “Bataclan mythomaniac”
On air from October 11th A devoted friend is adapted from The Bataclan mythomaniacjournalist Alexandre Kauffman’s investigation into the scam set up by a fake survivor of the Bataclan. She became head of the victims’ association Life for Paris. The series is inspired by it and introduces it through Chris (Laure Calamy), the next day November 13, 2015as he comes into contact with several victims online. How will this mythomaniac become the cornerstone of the Stand for Paris association? The series brilliantly analyzes the infernal and chilling spiral of Chris’ lies (see our opinion).
From reality to fiction
During the La Rochelle Fiction Festival, the series team presented themselves united around this moving project. Actress Laure Calamy, screenwriters Alexandre Kauffman and Jean-Baptiste Delafon and director Just Philippot are back with us in this project, based on Alexandre Kauffman’s investigation. The author then insisted on “presenting the facts without being led into speculation about what she wanted to do or what she thought.” According to him, his motivations are a real labyrinthand the true “Bataclan mythomaniac” refused to speak to him for a long time.
I only spoke to her at the end of my investigation. For me he is a monster who puts a penknife in the social contract. For him I didn’t find excuses but reasons because there was something very logical in the construction of his lies. A mythomaniac is someone who lies compulsively by believing their own lies. It is also estimated that there are around thirty false victims of the Bataclan, all of whom have in common the fact that they have been victims of something else in their personal history: family, men and above all lonelinesswhich is the nerve center of the mechanics of these lies.
From this real event it was necessary to construct a fiction A devoted friendreinvent the story itself because, for the authors, the real story would be “too murky”. According to Jean-Baptiste Delafon, the adaptation then consisted in approaching the sordid aspect of the story, while giving it “pace and suspense. It was also necessary to become familiar with the character and “play on both the refusal and the pleasure of following someone who possesses a form of evil genius”.
Our character was defined from three points of view: firstly the victim of loneliness, which has no place in society and is a social failure. Then, the altruistic superheroine who lives her night and begins her process of usefulness which she announces for everyone. And finally the monster, capable of scaring or threatening a child.
Laure Calamy’s approach to playing this character
Once the script for the series was ready, it was up to Just Philippot to direct the story, entrusting this delicate and borderline mad role to Laure Calamy. However, an exciting role for the actress who always tries to “tell the story of human beings without moral judgments and to go towards monsters and abysses”. It was therefore with curiosity, and also “greed”, that the actress began to explore this person and these situations, trying as much as possible to identify with her.
I explored his sincerity and his power of paradoxical empathy, which allows him to realize himself in this adventure. I also wanted his glamrock side to still be there and give it to him seductive panacheso that we feel attracted to her knowledge of music and want her to be our friend. He is constantly on the edge of the abyss, it is more suffering than madness. The way others see them is so important to her, she has a powerful openness towards people and the world that cradles her.
To help him in his approach, the authors tried to never fall into excess of madness and do nothing a sick character. It is, as Jean-Baptiste Delafon explained, a girl “aware of the bricks of lies that she moves and behind which she closes herself”.
He must move forward because he cannot go back; he is aware of what he is experiencing, the pain he may inflict, and the new pain he may also feel.
Moreover, as Alexandre Kauffman recalled, after being visited by a psychiatrist, the true mythomaniac was judged responsible for her actions, “because she had discernment”.
Modesty as the only guide
Finally, telling this story of the “Bataclan mythomaniac” made us wonder about the potential impact on victims of the Bataclan. An important event for everyone and intimidating for the screenwriters, who nevertheless had to uninhibit themselves and not hesitate to “also treat the victims with their sins and their squanderings” with the aim of giving them “the same flesh as the main character” explained Alexandre Kauffman. For his part, Jean-Baptiste Delafon recalled the cathartic power of fiction.
The difficulty was to make the victims live faithfully without locking them up in a bell of veneration and sacralization. Because the victims are not made of porcelain and the power of fiction is to be cathartic.
However, for Laure Calamy, filming a scene in front of the Bataclan was a difficult moment. Suddenly, the actress was “caught by reality” and even felt frozen inside herself. But Just Philippot was there, for his part, to make sure he had the right mix of emotions and thus maintaining a form of moderation and modesty.
On set we were always careful that the words used to create emotions were not a way of rushing, because I didn’t know the emotions and life stories of the actors. The difficulty with the series is that this time does not necessarily offer the time to build emotions in a collective and very warm way.
Comments collected at the La Rochelle Fiction Festival on 13 September 2024 by Sylvie-Noëlle T. A devoted friend it can be discovered on Max from October 11th.
Source: Cine Serie
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