Dressed in a military-inspired dress, Chancellor Elena Vernham (Kate Winslet) strides through the corridors of her dilapidated palace, whose kitsch decoration oscillates between Versailles and the Kremlin.
Imperial, inflexible, obsessive, paranoid, she rules with an iron fist a small fictitious republic in Central Europe, whose wealth rests on its cobalt mines, coveted by her American “ally”.
Surrounded by an obsequious court which nevertheless only aspires to overthrow her, and while her authority wavers, the chancellor will try by all means to maintain herself in power.
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Succession
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The Regime
is a gem of political satire and black humor, part Shakespearean drama, part farce that ridicules the powerful.
A terribly relevant satire in the era of the war in Ukraine and the rise of populism and nationalism in Europe – we think of Alice Weidel, the leader of the AfD in Germany, Siv Jensen in Norway, or even Pia Kjærsgaard in Denmark.
The latest jewel in the HBO galaxy, the miniseries boasts an arm-length pedigree: on production, the teams from the multi-awarded
Succession
saga ;
to direct, Jessica Hobbs (
The Crown
) and Stephen Frears (
The Queen
).
And, in the role of a crypto-Putin in a petticoat, Kate Winslet, impressive in her ferocity and madness, well surrounded by three-star supporting roles, including Matthias Schoenaerts (the military lover and psychopath), Guillaume Gallienne (the repudiated husband ) or even Hugh Grant (the political opponent).
Will Tracy, who had already written the script for several episodes of
Succession
, this time took on the role of show runner.
Alice Weidel, leading figure of the AfD, Germany's populist right-wing party.
Juergen Nowak / Alamy Stock Photo
“I wanted to tell a story of power, no longer at the heart of a family, as in
Succession
, but in a European country, a populist and imaginary regime.
I am fascinated by the stories of dictators, my library is overflowing with books on the subject,” confides the American screenwriter, joined by video.
A female dictator, that’s something new for a TV series.
However, at the start of writing his project, Will Tracy had centered his story around a male character – “a bit by reflex”, he confesses.
“And then Giorgia Meloni came to power in Italy as President of the Council.
And that gave me ideas.”
Another claimed inspiration is none other than Marine Le Pen.
Giorgia Meloni, first president of the Italian Council.
ANDREAS SOLARO/AFP
Powerful women, fictional stars
Strong women in the series?
Since the turn of the 2010s, there have been countless super-powered female characters at the heart of political fiction, from
Borgen
(2010-2013) to
The Crown
(2016-2023), including
Game of Thrones
(2011-2019),
Homeland
(2011-2020),
Scandal
(2012-2018),
Baron noir
(2016-2020),
The Handmaid's Tale
(since 2017) or
Mrs America
(2020) – all critical and public successes.
Olivia Colman is Elizabeth II in the series
The Crown.
Netflix
And the great film actresses are now well established in television dramas, which serve as a showcase for the talent of Cate Blanchett, Nicole Kidman and Julianne Moore.
Sandra Laugier, professor of philosophy at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, has made the series an object of study.
Author of
Our lives in series
(Éd. Climats, 2019), she supervised the collective reference work
Series, laboratories of political awakening
(CNRS Éditions, 2023).
For her, far from being objects of pure entertainment, TV dramas are “a driver of social innovation and democratization, and a vector of empowerment for the viewer”.
Sidse Babett Knudsen, Danish Prime Minister in
Borgen.
Alamy Stock Photo
She observes the rise in power of female characters: “As early as the 1950s and 1960s, TV series had included more female characters than cinema.
In the 1990s, the fiction produced by networks like ABC or NBC became increasingly qualitative.
Then, in the 2000s, came the golden age of the genre with the reign of HBO, which produced a body of important works in which women, but also other minorities, were more visible.
Anna Mouglalis plays a young president of the French Republic elected against the far right in
Baron noir.
Jean-Claude Lother
For the expert, the tipping point in the representation of women is
House of Cards
(2013-2018).
This story, which sees the rise and then fall of Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey), a lawless Democratic elected official, is the very first series produced for Netflix.
“
House of Cards
features a new female character, played by Robin Wright, Claire Underwood.
She is the wife of the main character, and is initially given an important, albeit secondary, role.”
In 2017, reality collides with fiction: it is the MeToo movement, and actor Kevin Spacey is implicated in a sexual assault case (
he will be acquitted in 2023, Editor's note.
) The screenwriters evacuate his character, leaving the field open to Claire Underwood, who ends up having her husband eliminated before becoming… president of the United States in the last season.
“If the subtext is clearly feminist, feminism nevertheless becomes a tool to dominate others,” underlines Sandra Laugier.
Robin Wright plays the Machiavellian Claire Underwood, who becomes President of the United States in
House of Cards.
Bridgeman Images
By showing that a female politician can be, like men, strategic, cynical, even immoral, the series work to overcome gender stereotypes.
Thus in
The Regime
, the leader played by Kate Winslet asserts herself to be cruel and manipulative under the mask of benevolence that she presents to the people.
Screenwriter Will Tracy says: “Costume designer Consolata Boyle, Kate and I absolutely wanted us to understand that Elena's true personality is completely hidden under a controlled uniform, and under her perfectly braided blonde hair, Yulia Tymoshenko style. , the former Ukrainian Prime Minister and muse of the “Orange Revolution” (
sentenced to seven years in prison for abuse of power in 2023, Editor’s note.
)
Yulia Tymoshenko was the first female prime minister of Ukraine.
Yamaguchi Haruyoshi/Getty Images
A detail that amuses Marlène Coulomb-Gully, professor emeritus in information and communication sciences at the University of Toulouse-Jean-Jaurès, and author of
Women in Politics.
Put an end to supporting roles
(Ed. Belin, 2016).
She deciphers: “Blondeness is a stereotypical marker of the feminine.
In the 20th century, particularly in Northern Europe, a certain number of far-right parties put forward blonde women to embody their movement: a way of not giving up on virilism, while giving the appearance of a femininity combining the characteristics of gentleness, care, etc., which are traditionally associated with the feminine.”
Will Tracy agrees: “Elena is humanly repugnant, but she is treated in a civilized manner by her foreign counterparts, especially diplomats, because she is a woman!
She knows it, and she plays with it.”
Because being a political woman in a world designed by and for men means confronting contradictory injunctions: borrowing from masculine codes (to show one's pugnacity) without forgetting one's "femininity" (at the risk of being seen reproach for being too “virilized”.) And then suffer misogynistic wrath, as is regularly the case in political life (Édith Cresson, Cécile Duflot, Ursula van der Leyen, Christine Lagarde, Theresa May, Michèle Alliot-Marie , Élisabeth Borne, Rachida Dati, Anne Hidalgo, Sanna Marin, etc.)
Emilia Clarke, the dragon princess from
Game of Thrones.
Christophel Collection
“Strategic essentialism”
Marlène Coulomb-Gully studies the representation of female politicians in the social and media sphere.
If today, due to their number, we are witnessing a form of normalization, the researcher nevertheless regrets that they are still characterized "by the reference to their family life and by their sexualization": female politicians are rarely represented in an autonomous way.
They are either in the wake of a man, and they are then “daughter of” (we think of Marine Le Pen), or “mother of” (like Elizabeth II or Angela Merkel, nicknamed Mutti, “mom” in German) ;
or seen through the eyes of men – this is the famous male gaze.
Stereotypes then parade: “iron lady” (Margaret Thatcher), “pasionaria” (Sandrine Rousseau), even “madonna” (as was the case for Ségolène Royal during her presidential race.)
Marine Le Pen, president of the RN.
Hans Lucas via AFP
Aurélie Olivesi, lecturer at Lyon-1 University and specialist in media and gender issues, explains: “In France, when women politicians became more visible, thanks in particular to the law on parity in 2000, we said that they would “re-enchant politics”.
A certain number of women began to use this discourse, even though they did not believe in it at all – this is the case of Roselyne Bachelot, for example.
We then speak of a phenomenon of “strategic essentialism”.”
Translation: submit (in part) to clichés in order to assert yourself.
Margaret Thatcher ruled the United Kingdom for more than eleven years.
Derek Hudson/Getty Images
Marlène Coulomb-Gully evokes the figure of Marine Le Pen: “In the incarnation that she offers, there is a form of tension between assumed femininity (her mid-length hair, her role as a divorced mother that she frequently evokes) and masculine codes (her smoking voice, her banter)... This is all the ambiguity of these women at the head of conservative or hard right movements.
Edgar Morin thus spoke of feminine-masculine girl to designate these women playing on both sides.
Thus in
The Regime
, Elena Vernham “borrows” the child of her head of protocol to display the figure of a “little mother of the people.”
Cynicism or genius?
One thing is certain, here, the woman is indeed a tyrant like the others.
The Regime
,
series created by Will Tracy, with Kate Winslet, Matthias Schoenaerts, Hugh Grant…, broadcast on March 3, on HBO Max.