Olivier Delacroix, on France 2: “I would not be the man I am if I had not done this program”

Olivier Delacroix begins by sending flowers to himself and his team: “I'm very proud of this season, I find it really very successful.”

Self-satisfaction, coming from another, could be seen as too much, misplaced vanity. But the new season of In the eyes of Olivier, which begins Wednesday January 8 on France 2 (at 10:45 p.m. or 10:35 p.m., for six weeks), is indeed to be put on the side of the nuggets.

In his calm and welcoming, caring voice, the interviewer extends his hand more than the microphone, and the interviewee enters into confidences. “This program makes us think about our society, always with the same delicacy“, continues Olivier Delacroix at the season presentation press conference. The fourteenth. “I haven't seen anything like In the Eyes of Olivier in 14 years. I'm proud of that.“

The subjects are heavy: collateral victims in the families of criminals, for the first broadcast. Then suicide, male violence and sexual crimes…”We've been working on it for a year and a half, before the Pelicot affair, around the words of unheard women.”underlines producer Katia Maksym, praising “a broken word” and movies “imprinted with light all the same, the light at the bottom of the tunnel“.

Gentle births

This is also the Delacroix signature: gentle births. He only works with female journalists who speak for the first time, before filming: “People have more confidence, women have a certain sensitivity, they are capable of hearing everything and convincing, my witnesses feel reassured.“

But what is the intruder Delacroix doing in this system? “I have rather feminine DNA and delicacy.” The importunate male sometimes betrays himself: “My colleagues are doing a fantastic job to get these testimonies. I often say to Katia “We will never succeed!”. That's my boyish side. And in fact they find it. How lucky I am to do this program! I wouldn’t have been the man I am if I hadn’t.”

If he discreetly portrays himself in the documentaries, the journalist agreed to go a little further for the issue on suicide: he shares with the viewer the suicide of his own father. “I'm not going to tell you that it was an easy film to make. We cried a lot. Crying is sometimes necessary. We don't talk much about suicide. This film is really beautiful.”

The need, for him too, to go see a psychologist

In the Eyes of Olivier reserves one of the show's testimonies for a personality: the actress Firmine Richard talks about her son in prison for murder, Michèle Bernier talks about her mother's suicide, the ex-Miss France Maëva Coucke talks about the cybersexism she suffered…

Because the shootings are “dense and nourishing” but also “testing“, Olivier Delacroix also needs to be listened to: “I think I'm definitely going to see someone this year, right now.“He mentions the recent death of a loved one. “I need to relieve myself by talking about these things. It's planned. Necessary“.

All the more necessary as it is not limited to television testimonies. He works on the Free antenna of Europe 1, Monday to Thursday from 10:45 p.m. to 1 a.m. “I am the evening friend, the confessor, the person with whom we want to share, who gives advice.”

How does he experience the very right-wing editorial shift of Europe 1? “This turn doesn’t affect me in any wayhe advances cautiously. I am not here to judge my colleagues. It's like the song from Heartache, Everyone does what they please…“

His first novel will be released in April by Fayard: Diary of an Imposter.