The king is dead. In haste, Armelle (Valérie Lemercier) finds herself propelled queen consort when her fickle husband, Prince Arnaud (Lambert Wilson), accedes to the throne. Problem: this professional speech therapist is not at all accustomed to the customs of royalty. Friday May 10, 2024 at 9:25 p.m., TMC broadcasts Royal Palace! The comedy by Valérie Lemercier includes Catherine Deneuve in the cast, in the role of Queen Eugénia. A character that the actress saw embodied by no one other than the former muse of François Truffaut. And to achieve her goals, Valérie Lemercier used a stratagem that was surprising to say the least, since she turned to religion.
“For foreigners, she’s a bit like the Queen of France”: why couldn’t Valérie Lermercier ignore Catherine Deneuve?
In this crazy film, Valérie Lemercier appropriates the codes of this very smooth world and does not hesitate to take example from emblematic royal characters. However, at the start, the scenario was not quite the same. “The main character was the wife of the mayor of a big city, a kind of Bernadette or Cécilia, ‘Someone”s wife in any case. But filming polling stations and people shaking hands in markets was neither very exciting nor very spectacular.”, the director declared when the film was released. New guideline found, all that remained was to find the actors to play the characters. And for the Queen Mother, Valérie Lemercier had a specific idea in mind. “We really wrote the role of Eugénia for Catherine, in a register that we don’t often see: a woman who speaks very quickly, who is direct, concrete, who can say shit and who is always very comfortable. Catherine is like that in life too. In fact, not everyone can play a queen. She can. For foreigners, she’s a bit like the queen of France.”
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Catherine Deneuve and Valérie Lemercier: a collaboration at the top
When she asks the actress Young ladies of Rochefort (1967) to participate in the project, Valérie Lemercier tries to influence her decision by imploring heaven. “I, who am not a believer, had put a candle for ten euros so that she would accept it. God is classy!”, remembers the actress in the press kit. The muse of the 2023 Cannes Film Festival accepts and the collaboration takes place. “Catherine Deneuve will always look more queenly in an apron and rubber boots than any other actress adorned with diamonds, because she has been famous since she was 18, she has always been beautiful and she inspires respect And then she is a very pleasant play partner, she makes the scenes easy because she never cheats., admits Valérie Lemercier. And Queen Eugenia also seems to have appreciated this filming experience. “Valérie has an English extravagance which I like enormously, with a multiple side, a permanent shift, a color and a world of her own which she transports absolutely wherever she wants. It’s very pleasant, as an actress , to enter such a universe. […] Valérie is a crazy person, but in the good sense of the word, she is incredibly crazy and serious mixed together. What I like about her is that she makes you laugh by never taking the path of ease or fashion, but by taking you from above, by real side roads of fantasy, fantasy being one of the most important things in life.
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