Un Village français, a French auteur series on a public network
Résumé
This article is a case study of the French TV series Un Village français, broadcast on France 3 since 2009. Mostly based on published and unpublished interviews, it attempts to explore the relationships between writers, producers, directors and broadcasters within the French television industry, raising the question of authorship. First, the specificity of audio-visual production in France is briefly addressed: the small number of channels ordering original TV series, the absence of showrunners or of an industrialized process of creating televised serial narratives, the power of directors, leading to the weak position of the TV writer within this economy. The focus of the article is then the history of the series before its first broadcast, from the early stages of its conception to the last steps of its production. Un Village français is indeed created by an a-typical trio of executive co-producers: a producer (Emmanuel Daucé), a writer (Frédéric Krivine) and a director (Philippe Triboit), championed by a non-executive producer (Jean-François Boyer). Eventually winning over reluctant channel executives, their stubbornness and ambition managed to air an auteurs series in prime-time on a public channel, ultimately receiving both popular and critical acclaim. The aim is to understand the creative and economic processes at stake, and their impact on the narrative.