Creator, director and main interpreter of “Désordres” on Canal +, why did Florence Foresti choose to title her first series like this? The comedian and actress tells us more about the themes of this quirky autofiction.
Broadcast every Monday on Canal+, Orders is the first series of Florence Forestiwho wears all the hats on this project since she is at the same time the creator, the screenwriter, the director, and the main performer.
In line with the series of Louis CK, Pamela Adlon, Ricky Gervais, larry davidWhere Blanche Gardin with us with The best version of myselfDésordres is an autofiction that tells the “true-false life” of the comedian adored by the French, who has just returned to the stage with his new show Boys Boys Boys. And that we follow here between the complicated writing of his one-woman show Epilogue in 2017, life as a single mother, and evenings with friends.
And when you ask Florence Foresti if the word “disorder” is what best defines her life, her answer is clear: “Certainly not. I’m quite orderly. Not psycho-rigid, but I’m quite organized. In a nice organized mess”.
But the actress, who is trying her hand at serial writing for the first time, goes on to explain why she chose to title her series for Canal+: “I like the word “disorder” because it evokes disobedience, I like it. And also anxiety disorder. I like the medical term “disorder”, anxiety disorder. And as I wanted to treat a little bit of joint custody, it’s the disorder that children bring into a life. The disorder in the order that we would like to impose on them, one week out of two, and which always ends up breaking up a little bit”.
“I wanted to treat panic attacks, anxiety disorder, and medication to possibly relieve people who suffer from the same disorder”adds Florence Foresti, who is inspired by her own life and her own demons, even if she assures that she does not tell anything really intimate or personal in these eight episodes.
“I wanted to make people feel guilty about getting treatment. There is still too much guilt in falling into depression. And I said to myself that if I could show them that I too, sometimes I need antidepressants to be able to live, because life is really not easy, especially at the moment, it was not bad”.
How did the idea for the character of La Mort come about?
Present as a red thread throughout the series, the theme of anxiety disorder notably takes the form on the screen of a “character” that Florence Foresti calls “La Mort”, and with whom she converses in the course of quite successful sequences. .
“We see what we want to see in the character played by Luc Antoni. The unconscious, anxiety. For me it is clearly Death. I wanted to show what it’s like to live with the fear of dying all the time”explained the comedian last month during a press conference.
“So I thought it was okay to embody it with a character who sticks to your coattails, who comes into your life at times when you don’t expect it. He embodies my anxiety disorders, my anxious disorder. That’s why it’s called Disorders. And I found that the best way to achieve that was to have an actor portray it. things more playful than the grim reality of anxiety disorders which aren’t great to film. It was better to flesh it out.”.
A character who therefore has nothing real but who is important in Désordres. And who is played by Luc Antoni, who immediately established himself as the perfect actor for the role.
“Luc Antoni is someone I’ve known for a very long time. We met about twenty years ago, at a comedy festival. When I saw him on stage, I was blown away by his talent for actor. He’s someone I’ve always wanted to work with. And when we imagined this character from Death, we immediately wrote it for him. We needed this timeless coldness. And we created the character around the actor”.