Disobey: Chantale Daigle's choice (Noovo) last fall, That's how I love you (ICI Tou.tv Extra) and IXE-13 (Club illico) this winter. The 2023-2024 television calendar suggests a strong return of historical series. But appearances are deceiving. Due to limited budgets, the future of fiction that revisits the past seems uncertain.
Published at 7:00 am. Updated at 5:56 am.
Josée Vallée knows her way around historical series. From 2004 to 2008, the producer directed Our Summers (TVA), a family saga by authors Anne Boyer and Michel d'Astous, whose plot spanned from 1900 to 1966. Today he is Executive Vice President, Feature and Feature Films, French-speaking market, Sphère Média has just released IXE-13 and the Race for Uranium, a new work by author Gilles Desjardins starring Marc-André Grondin, Julie Le Breton and Vincent Leclerc, which recounts the adventures of a group of Canadian secret service agents in Montreal, in 1945.
“When there is less money, the period series is weakened,” explains Josée Vallée. We find it difficult to tell contemporary stories. So imagine how difficult it is for us to tell stories from the past. »
While the average cost of an hour of French-language fiction is $620,000, the budget for a historical series actually jumps from 25% to 40%, according to estimates from producers interviewed to prepare this article. The sets, costumes and accessories come into play, not to mention the work before and after the shoot (research, visual effects, etc.).
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
The producer of IXE-13 and the race for uranium, Josée Vallée
I produced “Two Brothers” in 1999 for $490,000 per episode. 25 years later I have to produce shows for $500,000 an episode. We can't even keep up with inflation. It is sad.
Josée Vallée, executive vice president, feature films, French-speaking market, of Sphère Média
President of Productions Casablanca, box behind “That’s How I Love You,” Joanne Forgues is also concerned. The crisis in the television sector reinforces this feeling. “As budgets decrease, the time series that costs more is not a priority. It is save. »
For Alexis Durand-Brault, the situation is alarming. Given the stark lack of resources to tell “our stories,” the director and producer of the biographical drama Disobey: The Choice of Chantale Daigle laments “a culture in decline.”
“I'm very worried. Radio-Canada had great success with Les pays d'en Haut, but today I don't feel like they could repeat the experience because they just don't have the money for it anymore. »
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, THE PRESS
Director and producer Alexis Durand-Brault during the filming of Disobey: The Choice of Chantale Daigle
This is sad because there are many interesting and important characters that we could bring to the screen, such as Thérèse Casgrain, a pioneer of women's rights. There are many good stories we could tell.
Alexis Durand-Brault, director and producer
More soothing channels
Despite funding problems, broadcasters are confident about historical series. “Are they threatened with extinction? No,” replies André Béraud, first director of drama programs and feature films at ICI Télé. After a listing of the original productions of the genre that have been offered on Radio-Canada in recent years (C'est comme ça que je t'aime, Les pays d'en Haut, Le monde de Gabrielle Roy, El Toro, Pour toi Flora ), André Béraud claims to have more “in development”.
At Quebecor Content, managers recognize that it is impossible to offer a large number of period series per year. But when an interesting suggestion comes along, their ears are wide open.
“For an exceptional project, there is exceptional funding,” says Nadège Pouyez, general director of original content.
Management at Bell Media, which owns Noovo and Crave, declined our request for an interview.
The “dictation of Netflix”
According to Pays d'en Haut and IXE-13 author Gilles Desjardins, Quebec must continue to offer historical series even as foreign competition benefits from budgets of hundreds of millions of dollars to reproduce past decades (The Crown, Peaky Blinders, Stranger Things) seems almost disloyal.
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
The author Gilles Desjardins
We must resist the dictates of Netflix and the American industry… They want us to believe that there is only one way to make historical series. It's as if they were saying to us: “Since you can't do it like us, just don't do it.” We have to resist. We have to do it our way.
The author Gilles Desjardins
The same goes for Alexis Durand-Brault, who is currently working on a biographical series about Yvon Deschamps. He is waiting for “really strong” texts to present the project to the broadcasters.
“We have to dare to tell these stories in a different and biting way… a little like [Quentin] “Tarantino with Inglourious Basterds,” emphasizes Alexis Durand-Brault. My kids freaked out over Stranger Things. They loved it because it was shot young and cool. From time onwards it doesn't have to be dusty, classic and earthy. It doesn't have to look like peacetime. »
Understanding the present
Members of the television industry may have different opinions about the state of historical series – critical or not – but all agree that they are of utmost importance beyond simple entertainment.
“When we look at the past, we understand things about our present,” notes Joanne Forgues. With This is how I love you, François [Létourneau] wanted to send messages. Quebec women wanted to take their place at the heart of the 1970s. It shows the development of morals. We recognize that some things have changed, others less so. »
PHOTO BERTRAND CALMEAU, PROVIDED BY RADIO-CANADA
Vincent Leclerc and Sarah-Jeanne Labrosse in The Pays d'en Haut
For André Béraud, series from the Quebec era show that “the past is a guarantee for the future”. He specifically mentions Les pays d'en Haut, which proposed the conspiracy of a smallpox epidemic before we entered a global COVID-19 pandemic. In one episode, some residents of Sainte-Adèle who were resistant to the vaccine even went so far as to concoct their own cure using crazy ingredients…
“Periodic series show where we come from, who we are and how far we can go,” emphasizes André Béraud.
“It’s not about nostalgia; It’s a question of anthropology,” adds Sophie Morasse, general manager of television at Radio-Canada.
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$620,000 Average cost of one hour of French-language fiction
Canadian Media Funds, data provided by the Association québécoise des Productions Medias