Nicolas Le Floch, un bon produit «à l'export»? Réflexions sur la diffusion et la réception internationale d’une série historique (très) française...

Abstract

Are the historical series strongly influenced by cultural references shared by the community of their intended viewers easily exportable TV products outside the borders of their original “media landscape”? The success obtained in France by made-for TV movies and series in the tradition of British “heritage film” might suggest so. However what about a series like Nicolas Le Floch, deeply rooted in French history and culture? The historical series, which narrates the investigations of a police superintendent in the France of Louis XV and Louis XVI, is similar in many respects to the genre of “heritage fiction”: sets and costumes are lavish, dialogues carefully written in a language reminiscent of the Age of Enlightenment. However, this quality series, where narrative efficiency is sometimes sacrificed to a finicky historical reconstruction, is exported to quite a number of countries abroad. Its few concessions to international standards or generic plasticity do not explain everything: it is precisely the French touch that appeals to spectators beyond national borders, as it depicts – certainly somewhat simplistically – the charm of 18th-century France as shared by collective imagination: luxury, voluptuousness and art of conversation. This is the paradox of a fiction which yet remains “heritage” at heart.