“Put the flowerpot more in the center.
"Bread, can someone bring bread?"
In the beautiful dining room of Frou-Frou, the restaurant of the Edouard-VII theater (9th century), little hands are busy.
But, once is not customary, it is not to serve customers.
That day, the table served as the backdrop for Pierre Palmade's latest television creation.
We are in December 2019, in the world before.
The one where restaurants are still open, where masks, hydroalcoholic gel and barrier gestures are not yet part of everyday life.
The artist is shooting the third episode of his “Grand Restaurant” there, a humorous and crazy program made up of twenty sketches, which triumphed in 2010 and 2011 on France 2. For this third opus, recovered by M 6, the cast of about thirty actors is still dreaming: Julie Gayet, Muriel Robin, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, JoeyStarr, Florence Foresti or Isabelle Huppert, among others, responded to the comedian, who himself plays the butler.
"I want that from the credits, we say
No!
Are we going to see all these people?
I want the viewers' jaw to come off, ”slips the program's creator.
Pierre Palmade and his team shot 100 minutes in 6 days, an intense pace.
LP / Fred Dugit
The cameras are installed, pointed on the table where the actors Frédéric Diefenthal and Anne-Elisabeth Blateau have just taken their seats.
A make-up artist does the final touch-ups.
A technician adjusts the framing.
The extras wait in front of their plates.
"The wine is replaced by grape juice and the dishes on the plates, we have orders not to touch them, they have been the same for three days", explains Christian whispering.
When the camera is rolling, with his table mates, he must move his lips to pretend to speak.
"Extraordinary, funny, absurd texts"
At the next table, Pierre Palmade gives his final instructions to the actors.
“Anne, don't feather your voice, take the time,” he guides before slipping away, replacing his helmet on his ears.
"Silence," says an assistant.
“3, 2, 1, action!
», Loose the humorist.
Headphones on his ears, behind the camera, the conductor fidgets and laughs at the most biting lines.
He seems to be having fun like a kid.
The text, he knows it by heart.
"It is a gift that Pierre gives me to shoot with him," confides Romuald Boulanger, co-director of this fiction.
In addition to the dream cast, these are extraordinary, funny, absurd texts.
We feel a bond with the actors.
For each actor, Pierre has written tailor-made.
"
Anne-Elisabeth Blateau, Frédéric Diefenthal (in photo), but also Julie Gayet, Muriel Robin, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, JoeyStarr, Florence Foresti or even Isabelle Huppert… Palmade has formed a luxury cast.
LP / Frédéric Dugit
In front of the makeup table, a brush sweeping her cheek, Anne-Elisabeth Blateau is also delighted with the project.
“Pierre's texts are a gem.
And then one has a little the impression to turn with the team of France of the comedy ”, entrusts the actress of“ Scenes of household ”.
The pace of filming is also very sporty.
"It's a real challenge," confirms Romuald Boulanger who recently directed
Connected
, a film inspired by the first confinement on Amazon Prime.
You have to shoot 100 minutes in six days, it's almost a movie.
And, another challenge, to match the schedules of this swarm of stars.
A feat.
"Madness", adds Pierre Palmade, which explains in part why the comedian waited eight years to shoot this third episode.
“They told me:
You're not in the process of doing it again
.
So as I was tickled with that, I wanted to show that it was possible ”, welcomes the actor.
No more absurd
Julie Gayet wanted to be there.
"I am a child of
Palace (Editor's note: the cult television series created in 1988 which described the crazy life of a large luxury hotel)
, and it is a project that is out of the ordinary, confides the actress.
And then the world of Palmade seduced me.
I like quirky things, and we share a taste for self-mockery.
"
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What changes in this episode compared to the previous two - in addition to the channel, France 2 having been slow to respond, it is M 6 who took over the project - it is more absurd.
"To tell about situations in a restaurant, you can quickly go around," explains Pierre Palmade.
This time, it's a little more crazy.
I got help with writing by François Rollin, sometimes to push the situations to the point of madness.
"