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Dramatic entrants, pt1 Marie-Agnès Bruneau kicks off a two-part feature by looking at efforts to reinvent home-grown French drama in the face of growing competition from US crime series.  One of the most anticipated French series to launch this fall was Canal+'s gritty crime series Braquo (left, 8x52'). The show, with its high production values and almost cinematic approach, demonstrates French broadcasters' latest efforts to revive and update French drama. "We have been looking at bringing the world and filming style of Olivier Marchal into a series for a while," explains its commissioner, Canal+ drama director Fabrice de la Patellière. A former policeman who became a comedian, then a writer and a director, Marchal focuses on the tough, day-to-day reality cops face. In Braquo, set in both upper class areas and troubled districts, the action starts when a police chief commits suicide. "The series pays close attention to the aesthetics, having been shot in 35mm by a movie crew," says Patellière. "We are happy with the result and are already considering a second season." "We have high expectations for Braquo because of its production values, the notoriety of Marchal, the casting and because it's in the crime genre," adds international distributor Emmanuelle Bouilhaguet, sales director for scripted at Zodiak Entertainment. "We attracted strong interest when we showed the first images at Le Rendez-Vous in Biarritz, from countries ranging from Italy to Brazil. There is currently a demand for prestige series, especially as fewer seem to be available following the US writers' strike." Produced by Capa Drama, Braquo was presented at Mipcom in October by Zodiak, while coproducer Marathon is distributing internationally. Although not among France's most prominent commissioners, over the past five years Canal+ has made its mark as an innovator, by producing modern, cutting-edge series. The third season of the pay-TV channel's flagship show Engrenages (Spiral) – another dark crime series – is currently being shot. Produced by Son et Lumiere and distributed by 2001 Audiovisuel, it has managed to please both the channel's audience and the critics, while also finding buyers abroad. Engrenages was awarded the prize for most exported French show last year by TV France International (TVFI), and even cracked the English-speaking market, selling to BBC4 in the UK and SBS in Australia. It also found buyers in other major territories, including Mystery Channel in Japan.  The modernising of French drama has become crucial to the country's television industry, as the rise in popularity of US series over recent years has utterly destabilised the genre – once so comfortably settled into 90-minute cop shows and shares of more than 40% on TF1. Just five years ago, French drama accounted for 60 of the 100 best-rated shows, most of them on TF1, and the top-rated series included Julie Lescaut (left), Navarro and Une Femme d'Honneur. Last year, US series accounted for 57 of the top 100, with French drama accounting for just 13. The new favourites in French living rooms are now CSI, House and Criminal Minds.Canal+, as a movies and sports pay-TV channel, was looking for added-value original shows, and was slightly ahead of the curve. "As a pay channel, we definitely have a freedom the free-to-air ones don't," says Patellière. "We don't rely that much on advertising, and we don't have to address such a broad target that we have to offer something with wide appeal. It allows us to look at more taboo subjects, and more crude and harsh treatments. We can take more risk in our artistic choices. We need series that can generate buzz and make people talk. Our two continuing series, Mafiosa and Engrenages, generate market shares of around 13% and 10% respectively among our subscribers, which corresponds to 800,000-900,000 viewers out of five million. These are quite competitive figures compared with what feature films get on the channel. "In addition, compared with the big drama commissioners, we don't have such massive production obligations. I don't think it would be possible to produce 60 masterpieces a year. Because we are not doing that many, we can spend more time on development. It's all about matching the right writers, directors and producers. If one of those elements is wrong, then you're in trouble." Canal+ has an annual budget of €40m (US$58.7m) for three to five series and three or four political TV movies or miniseries. "We invest around €850,000 in each episode, which cost €900,000 or even €1m, as with Braquo, while our TV movies have budgets of over €2m," says Patellière. Meanwhile, he describes Carlos, a combined 3x90' miniseries and theatrical film, as the channel's "craziest project" yet. The €14m project covers 20 years in the life of 1970s terrorist Carlos the Jackal and was shot in numerous locations and in five or six languages. The director was feature filmmaker Oliver Assayas and the producer former news reporter Daniel Leconte, of Film En Stock. For the first time, Canal+'s movie arm Studio Canal was involved in the financial set-up, to help sell the two-hour theatrical version internationally. Back with TV series, after exploring the dark side of policing, Canal+ is tackling sex. Its next series to be delivered, also shot on 35mm, is Pigalle La Nuit, described by Patellière as "a thriller about power struggles in the sex business of modern-day Pigalle (Paris's red-light district). We liked the peculiar characters and singular universe of this project, which I don't believe another channel could have done." Sex – this time in period costume – is also the subject of the next Canal+ series to start shooting. Maison Close (Brothel), set in 1871, is a project from young filmmaker Mabrouk El Mechri (JCVD), who impressed Canal+ with his contemporary approach to history. "Our editorial strategy definitely includes modern costume series," Patellière says. However, Canal+'s most ambitious attempt to revisit history will be an English-language drama copro about infamous Florentine Renaissance family the Borgias, initiated by the channel and Lagardère Group and written by American scribe Tom Fontana (Oz, Homicide: Life on the Street). Announced at Mipcom in 2008, the international copro so far involves Jan Mojto and Beta Films in Germany, and Helion Pictures in the UK. "It's in the early stages of development; the first two episodes have been written. It is delightfully sulphurous and we are impatient to read the follow-up," says Patellière. "We want to move into English-language drama and aim to initiate one series per year. We have a few proposals, but it's still early days. After the international success of XIII: The Conspiracy (a thriller miniseries broadcast on NBC in the States), we are trying to continue it as a 13x52' series."  Public broadcaster France Télévisions' channel France 2 is also doing its best to revamp local costume drama, starting with its 8x52' series La Commanderie: The Templar Order (left), set in 1375, which launches this fall. France Télévisions Distribution (FTD) has high hopes for the show, "because it's an adventure and it's medieval," according to Eric Verniere, VP of international sales at the distributor. The series, the first episodes of which were unveiled in Cannes in October, was the most-viewed show at the Rendez-Vous screenings in September.Although sticking to a more traditional structure than Canal+, France Télévisions has added action, suspense and spice to its costume dramas, plus a touch of reality. France 2's first attempts, two seasons ago, included its adaptations of 19th century writer Guy de Maupassant's often politically incorrect novels, which featured a more modern style of acting and enjoyed considerable success. The anthology, totalling 16x60', is now in its third season and has sold relatively well abroad, although not into any major territories. The channel is also continuing its Agatha Christie adaptations, with last year's Family Murder Party selling to Japanese pubcaster NHK's distribution arm, Mico. More recently, France 3 scored a hit with Le Village Français, a drama set during the Nazi occupation of France. It was written by a pool of writers – a practice quite unusual in France, although one already used on crime series Les Disparus (Bloody Mountain). Le Village Français, distributed by Roissy Films, was launched internationally at Mipcom, and a second season has already been shot. France Télévisions' channels have also tried their hands at darker crime dramas. Launching on France 2 this season is miniseries Le Repenti, a thriller set in the tough world of northern dock workers, and an 8x52' series produced by Son et Lumiere called Le Chasseur (The Hunter), the lead character of which is a killer. The channel was less lucky with the second season of its bisexual drama Clara Sheller, which failed to repeat the success of the first season. Even so, it sold well abroad, finding buyers in Italy (RaiSat and Mediaset) and Scandinavia (YLE and NRK), and this summer secured an Eastern European deal with NBC Universal, according to FTD.  France Télévisions appears to have had its most notable success in updating series with comedy Fait Pas Ci Fait Pas Ça (left, Desperate Parents) – despite the fact the genre is generally accepted to be the most difficult to do well. The quality of the first season encouraged France 2 to ignore the indifferent ratings the show generated in its weekend access slot, and commission a second season, promoting it to primetime. The gamble paid off and Fait Pas Ci Fait Pas Ça's audience grew, generating enough buzz that France 2 commissioned season three. Distributor AB Group has sold the US format option, but with no firm commission to date.Marie-Agnès Bruneau 23 Nov 2009 © C21 Media 2009 
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