2023-04-17 18:34:00
The series opens with the arrival of Bernard Tapie in prison while dozens of inmates shout his name as a sign of defiance or, on the contrary, of admiration. Small consolation and, at the same time, a sad epilogue for a man who, all his life, wanted his talent and his creative spirit to be recognized and to have his name printed in large print in the business world and on city walls.
In the mini-series produced by Netflix, it is Laurent Lafitte, resident of the Comédie Française, who takes on the costume of the former politician and president of Olympique de Marseille (OM), who died in October 2021 following a ‘cancer. The first episodes make it possible to discover his environment, his family, his friends and, above all, his dreams of social ascent already very present.
A series that Bernard Tapie did not want
If the series is eagerly awaited by its admirers and aroused a certain excitement on Sunday evening on the Croisette, it has also already caused a lot of ink to flow because of the refusal of the family and the beneficiaries of Tapie to give their agreement to the project. from Netflix. His wife Dominique, his daughter Sophie and his grandson Rodolphe, in particular, expressed their annoyance on social networks.
The description of Bernard Tapie as “businessman, politician, hustler, boss of Olympique de Marseille, singer…” in the trailer posted online by the international platform, in particular, provoked the anger of those close to him and the call for a boycott by many OM faithful. An annoyance all the greater since, during his lifetime, Bernard Tapie had refused the project proposed by Netflix, arguing that “only his son Laurent was able to tell” his history.
The two designers, Tristan Séguéla and Olivier Demangel, defend themselves once morest any disrespect towards the man and his family. This “will be a biopic regarding the man, freer than a biopic regarding the facts, with a very strong element of subjectivity. This is our look at its trajectory. As soon as the idea came up, I informed him regarding it because I thought it was good to do it. But we did not seek his approval or his opinion”explained, in the French press, the screenwriter Olivier Demangel, who notably worked on the French political series Black Baron.
A series freely inspired by real events
Judging by the first two episodes, of rather classic style, presented in competition on Sunday evening as part of the CannesSeries Festival, the image given to the businessman is however far from being negative and might even bring the sympathy of many viewers. The first episodes, anchored in the late 60s, deliver the image of a young man who is never out of ideas, crafty but friendly, endowed with an impressive glibness and energy. A daring spirit, with a great thirst for success and entrepreneurship, who thinks that luck is provoked and that “the rules are there to be bent”. Even if it means flirting with the limits of legality.
Son of a plumber-heating engineer and a housewife, the young Bernard asserted his ambitions very early on, whether in the world of music or in the business world, with an ability to imagine “business plans” complex and daring. An ambition that his first wife Michèle, camped by Ophelia Kolb, will sometimes find it difficult to follow. In the first two episodes, we also discover the one who will become his second wife, the young Dominique, a role taken on by Joséphine Japy.
The two actors climbed the steps of the Palais des Festivals, Sunday evening in Cannes, where the series was presented in competition in front of a packed and rather impatient room.
“I am a proletarian, so what?”, proclaims Bernard Tapie in the face of those who doubt his talent and his ambitions. This French fiction, directed by Tristan Séguéla (16 or so), presents a “model of a man” who is desperately trying to escape his home environment and whose ambitious and gambler career might still dazzle part of the (young) public today. Despite, or because of, its many gray areas.
Available in seven episodes, the mini-series, baptized Wonderman internationally, will be broadcast from September 13 on Netflix.
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