We wish you in advance all the best for 2022.
Wednesday 29 December 2021
BEST WISHES
Thursday 16 December 2021
THE MADAME BLANC MYSTERIES - SERIES 1, EPISODES 4 TO 6 (CHANNEL 5/ACORN TV)
Tuesday 7 December 2021
LES PETITS MEURTRES D'AGATHA CHRISTIE: LE VALLON & MOURIR SUR SCENE (FRANCE 2)
« Bellecour, débarassez-moi de votre mère. »
Written by Flore Kossinetz, Hélène Lombard and Gabor Rassov, Le Vallon is loosely based on Agatha Christie's novel The Hollow (Le Vallon in French). A woman dies during a plastic surgery operation at the luxury clinic of Professor Rivière, a renowned establishment. Later, Rivière's assistant Doctor Colin is found dead — with a bullet in his head — by Barbara Bellecour. The wealthy mother of Rose Bellecour was going to consult for her cheekbones. Commissaire Gréco and Inspector Beretta investigate with the assistance of Rose, who discovers that Barbara could be involved. Max's anger management doesn't get any better when he learns that Delphine (his separated wife) has a lover named Paulo. Commissaire divisionnaire Servan Legoff talks to Rose Bellecour about his childhood.
Weed dealer and unexpected expert in seduction Paulo Romero is played by Estéban, who delivers a hilarious performance. The actor's real name is Michael Bensoussan and he is also the singer of the band Naive New Beaters under the pseudonym of David Boring. With Pierre Cassignard (Professor Rivière), Aurélia Petit (Geneviève Rivière), Quentin Baillot (Alexandra Ehle) as Servan Legoff, Benoît Moret (Pathologist Jacques Blum), Christèle Tual (Barbara Bellecour), Nicolas Lumbreras as hippie hotel owner Bob, Savério Maligno (Rateau), Alexandre Russo (Cassard), Maryne Bertieaux (Delphine), Raphaëlle Cambray (Véronique Delmas), Thomas Debaene (Doctor Colin), etc. Directed by Alexandre Coffre (Les Aventures de Spirou et Fantasio).
« C'est comme si vous me disiez qu'un fan des Beatles veut tuer John Lennon. C'est stupide. »
Penned by Éliane Montane and Thomas Mansuy, Mourir sur scène isn't adapted from a book by Agatha Christie (1). The tour of Nelly and Sky, the favourite pop singer duo of French teenagers, stops at the Colisée of Roubaix. Rico, a client of Rose Bellecour, claims that Sky stole one of his songs for the duo's latest hit. When he rushes to the Colisée, Rose follows him to prevent a catastrophe. Unfortunately, a guitarist is killed by the fall of a spotlight during a rehearsal while trying to save Sky. Rico swears he has nothing to do with it and Bellecour tells Gréco and Beretta that he's her cousin! Max happens to be a guitar player so Annie decides to send him amongst the musicians working with Nelly and Sky to protect the singer.
Three years after the memorable Mélodie mortelle from the previous era, Les petits meurtres d'Agatha Christie couldn't resist a return to the world of show business. Mourir sur scène captures the style of the Variétés from the 1970s with a song called Il était un homme. This episode was actually filmed after another one titled Quand les souris dansent, yet to be aired by France 2. It may cause a minor continuity problem regarding Gréco and Blum (2). Fast-paced comedy, great dialogues, aptly chosen actors and lavish production values remain the trademarks of the series. The work of production designer Moundji Couture (the operating theatre in Le Vallon and the "TARDIS" stage in Mourir sur scène) is extraordinary. Just like the costumes by Céline Guignard, especially the very Space: 1999 uniforms of the clinic employees.
Actor and humorist Thomas VDB (Alexandra Ehle) plays Rico. With Louka Meliava (Sky), Solange Fréjean (Nelly), Quentin Baillot, Benoît Moret, Christèle Tual, Nicolas Lumbreras, Stéphane Debac (Patrick Puech), Savério Maligno, Alexandre Russo, Bruno Georis (Oskian), etc. Directed by Nicolas Picard-Dreyfuss. Co-produced by Sophie Révil's Escazal Films and France Télévisions, with the support of Pictanovo and Région Hauts-de-France. Produced with the participation of TV5 Monde and RTS Radio Télévision Suisse. Sophie Révil and Denis Carot are the line producers. James Prichard, Basi Akpabio and Leo Desoyza are the associate producers for Agatha Christie Ltd. Cvetanka Atanasova is the production manager.
Music composed and conducted by Stéphane
Moucha. Songs Il était un homme, Androgyne
Idole and Tout à moi (Mourir sur
scène) composed by Stéphane Moucha. Cinematography by
Jean-François Hensgens (Le Vallon) and Bertrand
Mouly (Mourir sur scène). Edited by Bertrand Nail
(Le Vallon) and Céline Cloarec (Mourir sur scène). Casting by Michaël Laguens.
Main title sequence designed by Romain Segaud. Characters
created by Flore Kossinetz, Éliane Montane, Gabor Rassov and Sophie
Révil. Distributed by France Télévisions Distribution. Le Vallon and Mourir sur scène will be shown by France 2 on December 10th and December 17th, respectively.
Special thanks to Christophe Kerambrun.
(1) Mourir sur scène is the title of a famous song by French singer Dalida.
(2) Or not. We haven't seen Quand les souris dansent.
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See also:
http://naivenewbeaters.artiste.universalmusic.fr/
https://www.coliseeroubaix.com/histoire
https://tattard2.blogspot.com/2021/02/les-petits-meurtres-dagatha-christie-la.html