1776, Benjamin Franklin arrived in Paris, after a grueling boat trip, accompanied by his teenage grandson. Famous for his electrical experiments, the American was greeted with cheers from the population. But the man is in France as part of a secret mission: to convince Louis XVI to support the United States in their war of independence against the British.
“
I was overwhelmed by the fate of Franklin
,” Michael Douglas, who plays him, tells us.
He only stayed at school for two years. Everything else he learned through reading and nourishing his intelligence. It's crazy to think that someone who started as a writer, then an editor, who founded the University of Pennsylvania, created our libraries and post offices, who designed bifocal glasses, invented the lightning rod, would begin, at 70, a new career as a diplomat. At the end of the 18th century, a man's life expectancy was 39 years. Franklin would today be even older than Joe Biden! He's there a bit out of desperation. How ironic to think that a fledgling democracy, without an army, without a fleet, turns to one of the oldest monarchies in the world for help. I liked this great improvisation.
»
Beaumarchais and the Marquis de La Fayette
It is indeed at the heart of the subject since the 8-episode series for Apple TV + is adapted from Stacy Schiff's novel
A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France and the birth of America,
by the author and screenwriters Kirk Ellis (
John Adams
) and Howard Korder (
Boardwalk Empire
). Michael Douglas - Franklin, formidable in intelligence, seduction, and cunning too, lodged with a wealthy financier in Passy, waged his fight, without respite, for eight years, at court, in the salons. There he rubs shoulders with the Count of Vergennes, Minister of Foreign Affairs (Thibault de Montalembert –
Dix pour cent
), Beaumarchais (Assaad Bouab –
Dix pour cent
), the young and fiery Marquis de La Fayette (Théodore Pellerin also Jacques de Bascher in
Becoming Karl Lagerfeld
)…
Women too, of course, who compete for the favors of the prestigious guest. “
When we look at the very long epistolary correspondence between Madame Brillon and Franklin, hundreds of letters preserved in Philadelphia, we discover a woman who suffered from her condition, from a certain social alienation,”
analyzes Ludivine Sagnier, her interpreter.
She painted, played the harpsichord, piano forte, she was a composer, which was rare at that time. But, even as an aristocrat, she could not exist as a woman and an artist. Her strong and moving relationship with Franklin is due to the fact that he considers and respects her for her talent
. »
A twilight atmosphere
Franklin
is a fascinating lesson in history and politics, with spy thriller overtones, coupled with the coming-of-age story of a teenager (Noah Jupe –
Quietly,
The Undoing
). “
For the education of a young man what could be better than Paris? It’s the only city in the world where you can give free rein to your senses while enriching your intellect
,” laughs Benjamin Franklin. And God knows that his grandson Temple will enjoy it... All in a twilight atmosphere. One world begins (the United States), another ends (the Bourbon monarchy). The direction by Tim Van Patten (
Rome,
Black Mirror
), the language, in French as in English, are virtuoso, the reconstructions elegant - without omitting anything of the crudeness of the behavior of the time -, the actors prodigious…
Precious democracy
And, through
Franklin
, as in all good historical fiction, the past sheds light on our present. “
American democracy was the fastest in the world
,” recalls Michael Douglas.
Perhaps one of the side effects of this velocity is the doubt that is currently sweeping through the United States. May the series not only entertain, but also remind us how precious democracy is in our country, and elsewhere. Democracy seems, unfortunately, a form of government in danger of disappearing
.