Is there any other place on the planet where it is possible to bring together in the same room a renowned American writer (Douglas Kennedy), a legendary actress (Patricia Arquette), a French rap figure converted into an imposing actor ( JoeyStarr), productions from all nationalities (from Latvia to New Zealand and Australia, via Spain...), an astonishing collective karaoke moment (Starsky & Hutch and Dallas performed in chorus by a room of 1200 people discovering elective affinities very boomer 70-80), under the aegis of the master of ceremonies, Thomas “I am the French Tom Cruise, just translate” Croisiere.
All this without forgetting two impromptu militant demonstrations, one for Palestine before the opening and the other for ecology just before the award of the grand prize... there was hardly any other place than in Lille, during the closing of the Séries Mania festival, which this year broke its attendance records, with 98,000 people present throughout the week, that this can happen: as if, after a week of broadcasting series, the entire planet came to collide there , with its figures, its desires, its expectations, its loves, its questions... series, after all, tell the world and its most contemporary progress well, undoubtedly better than any other entertainment medium.
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Also read: Karin Viard and Melvil Poupaud at Séries Mania: “
In the Shadows
does not tell the story of a political ideology”
Palestine in the spotlight
During the closing evening, the winners gave rise to a few highlights, each highlighting a current issue.
First, the two prizes awarded to the Spanish series
La Mesias
, by Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo (best international production and student jury prize), star couple and duo in Spain, highlight a work that focuses on trauma of childhood (and how to live with it?) under the aegis of Pedro Almodovar.
The two directors, who are also actors, stressed the need to give full space to the intelligence of youth.
We can not say it better.
Another notable point of the festival: the best actor award was awarded to Kamel El Basha for the Australian series
House of Gods
.
Very moved, the actor thanked the production for “looking for a Palestinian actor”: suddenly, Palestine was embodied in the emotion of this man, whose attitude resonated with the title of a book by the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish:
Palestine as metaphor
.
No need to say more: emotion carried the rest.
Read alsoPhilippine Leroy-Beaulieu, Fianso, Camélia Jordana, Bérénice Béjo... An audience of stars at Séries Mania
The comeback of Kung Fu
Another important moment: the awarding of the prize for best French series to
Machine
, a strange UFO broadcast on Arte in April in which JoeyStarr and Margot Bancilhon play.
This series combines Kung Fu and Marxist theory, in a provincial factory setting.
We are happy, above all, to know that Kung Fu is back.
It was time.
As an echo of the dialectical confrontation set up by
Machine
, the Grand Prize was awarded to
Rematch
: this series is based on the historic moment during which chess champion Gary Kasparov faced an IBM machine aka Deep Blue.
Staging a face-to-face encounter between two worlds and two thoughts, implicitly announcing the post-human confrontations between man and artificial intelligence,
Rematch
joins
Machine
in the sense that these two works manifest a desire to extract ourselves from the real world and its frameworks, as if to better confront our doubles: the intimate violence in Machine and the advent of the artificial in
Rematch
.
Both, in any case, are Arte series, which emerged as the big winner of the festival, winning two of the most prestigious prizes and also winning two other awards: for the short series Those Who Blush, another opus dedicated to kids and the best original music, for
The world
does not exist.
If the entire planet comes to collide in Lille, for a week to watch series that depict the corners of the world, it is undoubtedly because it is looking for a mirror in which to recognize its faults and its anxieties, to better exorcise them afterwards.
The bet, this mirror held up to the world, is as usual successful.
Time for karaoke?