Director Pascal L’Heureux answers our questions about “Who pushed Mélodie?”, the series where investigation and humor intertwine wonderfully

A versatile film buff, Pascal L’Heureux jumped headlong into comedy thanks to his keen sense of rhythm. He completed two seasons of Fishermen, Discussions with my parents, The bombsin addition to co-producing sketches of the latest Bye Bye. Recently, he added the thriller to his CV by taking the torch of the 2^e season ofA criminal case. Pascal is a unifier who admires the work of his colleagues which he likes to highlight. The police comedy Who pushed Mélodie? follows a group of parents anxious not to lose their child’s place in a prestigious daycare, who do not hesitate to blame others when the educator claims to have been pushed down the stairs by a small hand. Can you find the culprit?

What makes “Who did it”-style films and series so popular?

Agatha Christie always made armchair detectives work. When you play Clue, it’s the same thing. For Who pushed Mélodie?all departments were asked to plant clues to make the spectators work. This is what makes the strength of the project. A choice of color, an accessory, an element of decor, a costume, a choice of framing, a musical punch, everyone works in the direction of the investigation. It is The godfather who meets A cop in kindergarten in a mansion Harry Potter on a very concrete subject: the difficulty of finding a place in daycare.

Besides, where is this magnificent mansion?

Our Racoon Academy is in Westmount, in the middle of the mountain. We filmed 21 of the 35 days there. The basement is a church basement.

For this kind of castingare we looking for actors who have a sense of punch or a suspicious look?

We were lucky with Brigitte Viau (director of casting) to do 15 days of hearing. We were looking for people who had a sense of rhythm. We made a fake trailer to give the desired tone. The actors knew how to prepare. We let ourselves be surprised. Chantal Fontaine had first auditioned for the inspector, but she had everything of the director. Annick Bergeron established herself as inspector and we knew we had our duo. Catherine Chabot is our everyday girlJean-François Provençal was destined to play in that. We created a workplace to challenger upwards. The actors become the specialist doctors of their role. Nicole (Leila Thibeault Louchem) and Nassim (Antoine Yared) are like two Terminators, they are our hitmen. They are warm, but business, surgical and methodical. Each character was approached like a Clue card.

Music is also a character.

It’s the 3^e project that I am doing with Philippe Brault. He has his own technique to work with. Before filming, he visited the locations to define the DNA. He created tracks and he came to the daycare, which ensured that the actors were performing to real music that was playing on a small speaker. Each character has their theme, the inspector, the director, the Academy, betrayal. If there was an album, I would so buy it! His music is colorful.

The action takes place in a daycare, but there are no children. How did you go about feeling their presence?

It was not for an economic reason, but a creative one. The authors [Marc Auger Gosselin et Simon Larouche] didn’t want anyone to see the suspects. In writing, it was delicious, but I didn’t want it to be frustrating. We went to record sounds in real daycares. We have prop masters who had fun making things out of themselves. We placed indirect clues. Self-portraits, for example, we know that at a certain age children have a phase where they draw things that are a bit violent. Joëlle Péloquin (artistic director) worked hard on the drawings. We know that Yvonne has blonde hair, and that Océane looks like her mother. The drawings give good clues.

Who pushed Mélodie?

Monday 7:30 p.m. on Télé-Québec