In a week, “Balthazar” will end on TF1. A few days before the broadcast of the last episode, Clothilde Jamin, the creator and producer of the series, confided in our microphone on the construction of this fifth and final season.
TF1 continues this Thursday, February 16, the broadcast of the fifth and final season of Balthazar, its successful detective series led by Tomer Sisley and Constance Labbé, with a new investigation entitled “Perfect Family”, in which Balthazar and Camille are called on an impressive crime scene: a family – the father, the mother and the son – were executed on a rest area.
But, quickly, Balthazar understands that this family was created from scratch: none of them knew each other a few days before getting into this car. Each of the victims accepted this charade to transport drugs… which disappeared. Who killed them and stole the drugs? That is the question.
After that, Balthazar will end next Thursday at the end of a final episode which promises to mark the minds of the fans and to make a lot of talk.
A few days before the end of the adventure, Clothilde Jamin, the creator, producer and director of the Balthazar collection, tells us about the genesis and construction of this latest series of episodes. And takes stock of these five crazy seasons. Without forgetting to give us a preview of the finale.
AlloCiné: Even before Tomer Sisley does not decide to arrest Balthazar, did you also ask yourself the question with the authors of ending the series with season 5? Or was it really Tomer’s decision that started it all?
Clothilde Jamin: In fact, we said it to each other a little each season, because in French fiction we never really know how many seasons we’re going to have. So every time we started a new season we said to ourselves that it could potentially be the last.
We said it to each other for example at the beginning of the writing of season 3, but we didn’t say it to each other in season 4 because we knew that we had a revival somewhere with the arrival of Camille Costes, and we knew that we were leaving for at least two seasons. But it’s a question we often ask ourselves.
How did you approach this last season? What were, in your opinion, the things that absolutely had to be included in these last episodes?
In terms of whodunit plots, there were things that we had wanted to do since the beginning of the series that had never materialized for a whole host of reasons. For example, the extraterrestrials, in episode 4, or the bomb in the body, in episode 3. We had been dreaming about it for a long time and we thought that it was kind of the last opportunity to give life to these episodes that lingered in our heads.
And then, the question we asked ourselves right away was “What end should we give to this series?”. We were very lucky to know that it was the last season, even if it was a mourning process, because it was moving and sad to say goodbye to our characters. But we knew that it was a real chance to be able to imagine an end for the series and the characters. Because few series are entitled to a real beautiful conclusion finally.
And, on the contrary, with only six episodes, are there stories that you would have liked to include in this season 5 and that you could not tell?
If we had had more episodes, we would obviously have taken the time to unfold certain character plots. With ten more episodes, we would have liked to tell a thousand more things about our characters.
Six episodes is really tight. Especially since at the end of season 4 we left Balthazar in an extremely complicated position, so we had to manage that and respond to the cliffhanger of the previous season in the first episode of season 5. And we also had to give a conclusion to the series and offer a real end to all these characters. All of this takes time. So if we remove the first and the last episode, there are still four in the end. It’s very tight to tell everything we would have liked to tell.
For example, we could have further developed the relationship between Olivia Vésinet (Caterina Murino) and Balthazar. And I’m also thinking of Delgado (Yannig Samot), whom we love. We had desires that unfortunately did not come to fruition.
Finally, it has somehow become a mark of personality that little is known about Delgado. But it is certain that, with the authors, we had plenty to tell about him. The problem is that there has never really been a place to do so. While it is a character who is very present in the series. It’s a small regret, it’s true. But he’s a character we love. He is extremely funny. And he has such a thin side. For me, it’s really one of the pillars of the series.
Thibault Grabherr / TF1
Are all the investigations of this fifth season inspired by various facts?
Not only news stories, they are inspired by many things. Sometimes it comes from miscellaneous facts, or readings, films that we have seen, genres that we want to explore.
Clearly, aliens are a genre unto themselves. And for all the X-Files screenwriters, it’s a bit of a must, so we wanted to pay homage to this series. And then it also responded well to the questions of our characters, since Balthazar is a scientist who speaks to the dead, he is on the breach between pragmatism and something more supernatural. It was fun to imagine that. And since Balthazar spends his time teasing, aliens are a huge topic of discussion. Especially since it’s reality, no one can prove that extraterrestrials don’t exist. So from there, everything is open.
Episode 2 was loosely inspired by the disappearance of an influencer in the United States. Episode 3 is divided into two parts, and the first part, with the bomb in his body, it made us laugh a lot, to imagine Raphaël Balthazar locked in a room with a bomb in a corpse. And the second part is more rooted in societal issues of reflection on male and female gender. And the finale, you will see, is also a very special genre episode.
Precisely, the final, which will be broadcast on February 23 on TF1, allows to finish the series in apotheosis. How would you tease this last episode?
I would say that each character is going to face their deepest terrors. And finally, each character, faced with their worst terrors, will realize what is really important to them. And in the case of the character of Camille, who is in a permanent flight and who is in something a little self-destructive, because she has never forgiven herself for what she has done, this episode will allow her to understand that life isn’t so bad after all.
Thibault Grabherr / TF1
The finale will also be marked by the return of Alexander, Balthazar’s psychopathic brother. Did you have this idea of Alexander as the big “evil mastermind” of the series, which pushed Maya to murder, in your mind from the first season?
No, we didn’t know, because once again we didn’t know how many seasons we were going to be able to tell. That’s the whole difficulty. When we have a red thread like that of Lise’s death, we have to move forward, otherwise we slip and finally the red thread loses its importance. So we had to move forward, without moving too fast.
I would say that the series was built in two stages. First of all, on seasons 1 to 3, between Balthazar and Hélène, with this red thread which is Maya (Leslie Medina). There, for once, we knew where we were going and what we wanted to tell. And then there was the relaunch of seasons 4 and 5, with the arrival of Camille, and that of the hero’s brother too.
We talked about it a lot with Tomer Sisley and we came to the conclusion that you don’t become Raphaël Balthazar by chance. If you become such a demanding man with yourself, so good but at the same time so tortured, it’s because something happened when you were a child, in your relationship with the family. And that’s where the idea of this brother came from, with whom, ultimately, Balthazar has always been in competition.
Was the perfect actor to camp Alexandre Balthazar hard to find?
No, Olivier Sitruk was a real highlight. Already, he has a resemblance to Tomer. He exudes something similar. And at the same time he has this very particular look. He’s a very talented actor. What he offers in episodes 1 and 6 of this last season is of a very high level.
How do you view the Balthazar adventure?
I have a lot of love and tenderness for this series. I worked with great people, be it the authors, the technical teams, the directors, the actors, including Tomer, Constance, Hélène, Yannig and all the others. It’s a big family. And this adventure was also really great with TF1, the collaboration with the channel was very pleasant.
And when I think about it, I think to myself “How lucky we were to make this series, and how lucky we were that the public received it in this way”. Making fiction these days is a lot of work, but there’s also a bit of magic in it all. There has to be a meeting with the viewers, and that’s something we don’t control at all.
We are all very proud of this series and we are very happy that it ends in this way. I hope it’s a generous series. We all had a lot of fun doing it. The watchword on this series was never to be jaded and to always remain in a notion of pleasure and challenge.
Do you have any other projects you can talk about?
We have quite a few projects at Beaubourg Story, but there are still many that are in the development stage, so I don’t know if we will be able to talk about them one day. As a producer, I have just finished shooting a Christmas TV movie for TF1 with Hélène de Fougerolles and Lannick Gautry. Like what it is, once again, a story of encounters and family. And the rest is in writing at the moment, so it’s too early to tell.