“You will end up on the boards!” »
Discovering 10-year-old Micheline Presle making a spectacle of herself in front of her classmates, a nun launched this formula, unaware that one day the child would become the heroine of Les
Saintes Chéries
.
The day after her 20th birthday, Micheline Presle began a brilliant career as an actress between France and the United States.
On the eve of the war, she began with appearances in a few films, including
Je chante
, with Charles Trenet.
In the seven decades that followed, she would make more than 120 films, some of which, like
The Devil in the Body
and
Boule de Suif,
have become classics.
Also read: Les Saintes Chéries on Madelen
Regularly praised by critics, in the mid-1960s she achieved a popularity that she assumed, but which, she assures, was not one of her priorities.
His deep desire is to return to the plateaus as often as possible, while still having time for family life, essential to his balance.
She is therefore aware of the daily problems between two shoots when she discovers the scenarios and dialogues of the adaptation in 13 episodes of 26 minutes, of a humorous novel by Nicole de Buron,
Sainte Chérie
, renamed
Les Saintes Chéries
.
She discovered points in common with the character of Eve Lagarde, a mother of two children in France in the 1960s. She accepted, without the slightest hesitation, to play her.
The role of the husband overwhelmed by the eccentric initiatives of a sparkling, witty but totally unpredictable wife, is entrusted to Daniel Gélin.
Also read: Micheline Presle, the last cinema legend has passed away
The press welcomes a first in the history of the small screen.
Until this date, considering the small screen as a poor relation of their profession, actresses and actors devoted themselves exclusively to cinema.
The times have changed.
Their descendants now only swear by television.
the success of Les
Saintes Chéries
was undoubtedly a first trigger.
Les Saintes Chéries
from 1966 to 1977, screenplay by Nicole de Buron, directed by Jean Becker, with Micheline Presle, Daniel Gélin...
The series is scheduled every Friday evening from October 9, 1965. The day after the broadcast of the first episodes directed by Jean Becker, the press hailed the triumph of what was becoming
“the favorite entertainment of the French”
.
Some voices are raised to criticize the lack of depth of the whole, but no one listens to them.
Every week, tens of thousands of enthusiastic letters are sent to the ORTF.
Even before the end of the broadcast, viewers are unanimous in demanding a sequel.
The management did not take long to order a second series which would take place in Paris, but also during the winter holidays in the mountains, and the summer in the sun.
The audience is even stronger.
A third series is being considered, but Nicole de Buron is reluctant to get back to work.
She doesn't want to do what she considers to be one too many fights.
She has the feeling of having dealt with every possible and imaginable situation in every way, and exhausted her reserve of gags.
The producers put pressure on her, and she finally gave in.
This is how a third and final season will be born, where Eve, who has decided to work, will find herself faced with the hazards of daily life in a company.
The 39 episodes were also marked by the presence of guests, for a few scenes.
On this long list appear, among others, Jean Yanne, Jean Carmet Dany Saval, Jacques Higelin, Marthe Mercadier, Bernard Alane, the Charlots, Mary Marquet, Patrick Préjean, Roger Carel, Rufus and Robert Castel.
Finally, and this is another first, the BBC purchased and broadcast in continuity the 1014 minutes of a program that became
“A French Household”
.
The image of France at a time when we cultivated small worries rather than big worries.