The new French comedy from Netflix, by and with Pierre Niney, goes behind the scenes of a catastrophic filming, with a very solid reference in mind: The Office. A brilliantly written mockumentary, which obviously pins us to our sofas with embarrassment (and that's great).
In a huge setting, Pierre Niney and Géraldine Nakache throw jokes at each other with perfect timing. No, you're not watching a new season of LOL: whoever laughs, gets out!but you instead landed in front Fiasco, a newcomer to the galaxy of French-style Netflix productions. Highly anticipated, this comedy by Igor Gotesman (Family Business), co-written with Pierre Niney, features the making-of of a filming which literally turns into drama, over the course of its 7 episodes.
Advertisement
Built in the form of a mockumentary, with strong zooms and on-camera interviews included, the series continues to take us into the terrain of embarrassment, again, again, and again. But all its genius lies precisely in finding the right balance to bring us back into this catastrophic cinema universe, where we could really die of shame for the characters as they sink into unease.
Fiasco takes over with dignity The Office
This process of leading us towards laughter, passing through the box of embarrassment, is obviously not new. But Fiasco is not there to hide its clearly identified references. THE “mockumentary”a flagship comic genre in English-speaking countries, but less known here, could finally find its letters of nobility in the French way.
Looking at the seven episodes, we inevitably think of Parks and Recreationhas Modern Familybut especially to The Office, in its most embarrassing version: the British original by Ricky Gervais, which inspired the famous American remake of 2005 with Steve Carell. This is where the jokes stood out as the most limited, always navigating the border between bad taste and sexism, racism, ableism or harassment.
With FiascoIgor Gotesman takes up this role with dignity: the writing is brilliant, playing particularly with the sounds of words to invent misunderstandings in all circumstances. “We have to coax Marianne” thus becomes a false concert with “We need Amadou and Mariam” and Robert Zemeckis becomes the director of a prestigious project with only Robert in the cast.
Advertisement
This ease of writing, which we found in the short format Cast(s) and in the movie Fivealready imagined by Igor Gotesman and Pierre Niney, gives Fiasco a particularly pleasant fluidity. We are bothered, certainly, every second, by all the adventures of the series, but the puns are so intelligently measured, that we end up relaxing, a little, by watching for each new discovery.
A series calibrated for social networks
To execute these verbal stunts, you necessarily needed a cast accustomed to the rhythm of comedy, capable of delivering these well-felt punchlines, even from the depths of unease. In the main role of Raphaël Valende, a cursed director, Pierre Niney relies on his immense capital of sympathy, acquired over the years, from LOL At Torch. And it works: the actor constantly navigates between the figure of the tragic loser and that of the king of embarrassment, becoming by turns only clumsy then deeply detestable.
At his side, his lifelong friend, François Civil (The three Musketeers) makes an ultra convincing best friend, sometimes even stealing the show from the main character with his luminous charisma, in the middle of the chaos. With the rest of the cast, including Géraldine Nakache (The flame) and Pascal Demolon (Radio Stars), the duo forms a happy bunch whose lines are calibrated to be cut and reused endlessly in the form of memes. Like the Torchwe expect to see sequences emerge in the coming months all over our social networks, and especially in those around us – and it will be deserved.
Too much discomfort, kills the discomfort?
The only downside to the very eye-catching picture of Fiasco : a few less funny running gags (the makeup artist's breath), but above all a sometimes uneven pace. The episodes, which regularly approach 40 minutes, would have deserved to be shorter to give a more impactful aspect to the whole.
But if boredom sometimes rears its head, we must admit that this fits perfectly with the tone of the series: stretching jokes out in length without ever stopping, so that the embarrassment becomes more and more terrible. We are far from the rhythm of comedies like Torchwhich relies on the same mechanisms, but with speed of execution without downtime.
Paradoxically, Fiasco therefore takes all its time until its final episode, the resolution of which seems more hasty and less controlled. But since we've just spent almost four hours with the team that handles discomfort best in the world, we're already asking for more of this little guilty pleasure, which will undoubtedly become a must-have in the Netflix catalog.
The verdict
We liked
- The writing is brilliant
- Discomfort, pushed to the maximum
- Christian Bale
- François Civil as a viking
- The sports scene with Claire Chazal
You should clearly not be allergic to embarrassing humor, nor to parodies of advertising slogans or documentaries. true crime to appreciate Fiasco. This creation by Igor Gotesman (Family Business) and Pierre Niney (The torch) for Netflix thus immerses us in the making-of of a film with disastrous shooting, between accidents, blackmail and losing tempers. Built in the form of a mockumentary, a genre already largely mastered by English-speaking productions, the series seems to know no limits, distilling punchlines with increasingly palpable unease. But that's what makes it so charming: using our entire range of emotions and common references to capture the slightest laugh. Be ready: we finally have our The Office French, cinema version.
Fiasco
There are no offers at the moment