” Nice gesture “. This is the title – borrowed from that of a 1939 film with Gary Cooper – of the new weekly cinema program on France 2, from Sunday January 22, in the second part of the evening. “A dive into the heart of cinema in the making [pour] take viewers behind the scenes, make them discover what is outside the frame, share encounters with those who are in front of and behind the camera »summarizes Pierre Lescure, who takes up the time slot occupied by Claire Chazal with “Passage des arts”. “A film magazine that will itself be cinematographic”adds Michel Field, director of culture and performing arts at France Télévisions.
A hundred times on the job, hand in your work… The hour is still and always for culture in the audiovisual public service. This new program is part of the resolutely combative strategy that the group, chaired by Delphine Ernotte, renewed for five years in August 2022.
The bet of the former host of the “Midnight Circle”: “Breaking the simplistic image that people have of what culture is on television: Stéphane Bern and Nagui. » He dreams aloud of reconnecting with the good old days of « Dumayet, disgraupes, [du] National Popular Theater of Jean Vilar”. But that was before. Before the dismantling of the ORTF. Before Jack Lang, who will have fired all wood to get culture out of its elitist and bourgeois inner circle. Before Arte, which officially defines itself as “cultural and European public channel”. Before the explosion of the Web, the surge of platforms, which capture this young audience that is often lacking in historical channels.
Gear shift
Michel Field knows it: “There is no longer a consensus on what ‘culture’ is”, now plural, diverse, constantly changing. For this, he intends not to stay with both feet in the same shoe of the traditional show, classical arts, debates, these appointments to which boomers and seniors are certainly very attached, but which hardly attract young people. generations. Change of gear this year. “The idea is that our offer is punctuated by events” – starting with those of which France Télévisions is a partner…
First salvo at the end of January, at the Angoulême Comics Festival, at which Culturebox will dedicate a special week to the 50th anniversary of the event. Then come the Molières, in April. “We convinced Alexis Michalik to take over the ceremony”broadcast on France 3 – with, as a result, a possible broadcast in the second part of the evening of his room Edmond, who triumphed at the 2017 Molières and is still played in Paris. Guaranteed audience.
In the process, the Cannes Film Festival, whose France Télévisions ousted Canal+ in 2022, will be “made accessible to all”thanks in particular to the essential Pierre Lescure, who was the president of the said Festival from 2014 to 2021, after having directed… Canal+ for a long time.
The performing arts will not be forgotten, from Avignon, for the theatre, to Orange, for opera, via La Rochelle and its Francofolies. Here too, Sunday will be in the front row. A weekly theatrical meeting will be offered in the afternoon on France 5, hosted by Louise Ekland, host of “We have the solution! “, on France 3. The name of this new appointment: “C l’intermission”. Another behind-the-scenes story…
The Culturebox channel, on France 4 and France.tv, remains at the forefront of this all-out cultural offensive. The ” Paname Comedy Club will be revamped. And Raphal YemDaphne Bürki’s accomplice, will be at the helm, on France 2, on Friday evening, of a “New Scene” bringing together the now classic “Taratata”, “Basique, le concert”, “Génération Paname” and rap, hip-hop, R’n’B concerts…
“Deconfine everything”
The challenge: to succeed in all cultural fields, “what we did in the book with François Busnel and Augustin Trapenard”, enthuses Michel Field, quoting “La Grande Librairie”. Busnel is precisely preparing a series of portraits of writers coming to recount the literary movements and eras, on France 5, of filmmakers talking about “their” writers. France 3 is not to be outdone, which is working, in the regions, on a television adaptation of love dictionaries of Plon, big bookstore success.
Night classes
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“We are not just a broadcaster, we are a partner in the culture ecosystem”recalls Stéphane Sitbon-Gomez, director of antennas and programs for France Télévisions. “We are working to deconfine everything”rebounds nicely Michel Field, evoking the new formats that have made it possible to experiment with the chaotic period of Covid-19.
Thus the famous “pastilles” (short programs). ” Oh ! Biz’Art” will resume each Sunday the principle of “D’art d’art” and “Ouh là l’art! », with a wide openness to all forms of painting, such as street-art, and a staging and ironic voice by the hilarious Stéphane De Groodt. “An entertaining and unique cultural comma, a little breather before the Sunday evening movie”we say to France Télévisions.
Finally, the public group intends to (re) put poetry on its antennas. A show is in the making, with the producer Electron libre. Called “Stances”, it will invite personalities to come and read or say a contemporary poem of their choice.
In short, culture for all, from 7 to 77 years old, “like the relationship of the French to culture, deeply inscribed in their daily lives”, we want to believe in France Télévisions. What to discuss again fee waiver decided by the government? At a time when the historical concept of public service, from health to national education, is in full upheaval and questions about its future, what better than culture to relaunch the debate on the French exception…