History and romantic spirit: the event series at the heart of the Wars of Religion

Black Périgord, 1557. The Wars of Religion threaten France. Behind the ramparts of the Mespech castle, surrounded by a dangerous, hostile and intolerant world, the Siorac family fights for its survival and its convictions. Jean, the father (Nicolas Duvauchelle), is forced to reconnect with violence to defend his ideal. Isabelle, the mother (Lucie Debay), fights to exist in a world where men make the law. Pierre and François, the sons, enter adulthood abruptly, torn like their country between the Protestant faith of their father and the Catholic fervor of their mother. There is the life of a community, masters and servants, parents and children, epidemics, adversaries, battles and mourning, science and superstitions, and love stories.

Adapted from the first volume of the Robert Merle saga, the series Fortune of France immerses us in the heart of a Périgord castle in the 16th century^e century, in a rural world and a France torn apart by the Wars of Religion. But, as Christopher Thompson, Fabrice Roger-Lacan and Baptiste Roger-Lacan, the authors of the series, point out, Fortune of Franceit is also and above all “a love story, that of a couple, Jean and Isabelle, who love each other and tear each other apart for their ideas, under the gaze of their sons, Pierre and François, and the community of “people” of the castle with whom they live “And it is precisely through the point of view of Pierre, son of a Protestant father and a Catholic mother, that the series explores the conflict which divides his family and the whole of France. “The ambition of this series is the telescoping between the intimate history of our characters – family issues, domestic war, survival of the estate in the face of external attacks, teenage love, fraternal conflicts – and the great History which forces them to make crucial choices”, specify the authors. A series whose issues continue to resonate today. “In telling the story of the France of yesterday, explains the authors, Fortune de France questions us about our times.The series takes us back to ever-burning topics: the place of women in society, class conflicts, religious fanaticism, epidemics, wars, the progress of science and communication versus conspiracy theories and obscurantism…

Over the course of the six episodes that make up the series, an essential question emerges: how can we survive together? Remain faithful to our beliefs and values ​​in a world torn apart by violence? “It is about showing in a raw realism and an epic breath the intimacy and humanity of the beings who, despite the troubles of the times and the misfortunes of daily life, still fight to invent a better life.” A universal message worthy of this ambitious production (filmed entirely in natural settings, with 57 actors, nearly 260 technicians and more than 1,000 extras) where the little story, intimately mixed with the big one, shapes the romantic destinies of our heroes.

Joint interview with Nicolas Duvauchelle, Guillaume Gouix and Christopher Thompson

Interview with Christopher Thompson

Historical context

The series begins in 1557. France is on the eve of the Wars of Religion, a civil war between Catholics and Protestants that ravages the country for four decades. This conflict between the French gives birth to the blood and terror of modern France. We are ten years after the death of Francis I^er. It is the end of a golden age. His heirs are poor monarchs. With them begins a chaotic period for the kingdom of France, divided between Catholics (the “papists”) and Protestants (the “huguenots”), who have only their wild intolerance in common. The great lords come out of their lair. It is the slaughter. Massacres, assassinations, betrayals: the Wars of Religion set the country on fire and blood. Dizzying acceleration of scientific progress and technologies, cultural mixing, speed of information, artistic abundance. Fanaticism, mass violence, anxiety about the future of the human species. Are we talking about this beginning of the 21st century?^e century or from 16th century Europe^e ? The Renaissance man deciphers the world that is offered to him. The invention of printing has revolutionized communication with the same magnitude as our contemporary digital revolution. Embodied by great humanist figures such as Erasmus, Montaigne or Marguerite de Navarre, new ideas of tolerance and progress circulate and spread, provoking the violent reaction of fanatics of all sides. In this world where fear of the other reigns, the faith in human nature that drives our hero allows us to glimpse the hope of a reconciled future.

Published on September 16, 2024