A series eagerly awaited by the public, but not by the Tapie clan. Wednesday September 13, 2023, the streaming platform Netflix unveiled its new biographical series based on the story of Bernard Tapie. Soberly titled Tapie, it retraces in seven episodes the extraordinary journey of the former Minister of the City and president of OM, played on screen by Laurent Lafitte. If he himself was very opposed to this unauthorized biopic, as he had made known before his death in October 2021, it seems that the rest of his family was not convinced either. Laurent Tapie, his son, revealed that he had “really liked the first two episodes” during an interview on RMC Story, on the eve of the release of the series. But the businessman appreciated the sequel less, whether it was the role of his mother, Dominique Tapie, or the evolution of the main character. Moreover, he “regrets the choice of having mixed pure fiction with reality”. Indeed, according to him, Tapie does not fully reflect the reality of things. This is what he explained in more detail on Monday September 18, 2023, at the microphone of South Radio.
Laurent Tapie was to participate in writing the screenplay, but was ousted by the director
First, Laurent Lapie assured that it was planned for him to participate in the writing of the series with the director Tristan Séguéla, also son of “best friend” of his father, Jacques Séguéla. Ultimately, he was dropped from the project. “I blame him a little for that. As much as I can hear and accept the idea that he wants to be free in his writing, I would have preferred him to tell me”, explained Bernard Tapie’s son, assuring that the director had simply stopped responding to him after a few exchanges. Subsequently, the young businessman spoke about the border between reality and fiction that we can observe in this biopic. Although he nevertheless wanted to make it clear that he “there is nothing in the series that justifies” that the family begins “legal actions”and some aspects were “close to what reality was” – such as the way the VA-OM affair is told – Laurent Tapie believes that “on many other things, it’s a bit nonsense”.
These lying scenes which put Laurent Tapie “mad with rage”
For him, “It’s not a biopic” but it is also not “a pure fiction”. Bernard Tapie’s son notably commented a scene in particular, which “did not exist” : that of the meeting between his father and the former prosecutor of Valenciennes, Eric de Montgolfier, in the context of the VA-OM corruption affair. “What is correct is that my father went to see Montgolfier even before he summoned him. That’s correct. Afterwards, what they said to each other, they didn’t have twenty minutes of conversation of that nature”, explained Sophie Tapie’s older brother. This dialogue is one of the two things that “annoy the most” Laurent Tapie in the series: “On one side, there is the rigor of justice, on the other side, the schemer, who tries by all means, intimidation, flattery, to buy it. And Montgolfier who tells him ‘you didn’t fall on me, you fell on justice’. I can tell you that there would be a lot of episodes to do on justice regarding my father.”
The other aspect that irritates Laurent Tapie is “the way his political career is described and what he did at the Ministry of the City”. So much so thathe says to himself “furious” against this passage of the series. “It’s grand Guignol. It’s not even funny, it’s a bit shameful. He did something other than organize tea parties for the suburbs”, he protested. Other scene “downright ridiculous” to his eyesthe moment when François Mitterrand encouraged Bernard Tapie to resign from the government following the Tranchant affair, which born “It didn’t happen like that at all”. According to Laurent Tapie, it was his father who made the choice to leave his position as minister while awaiting the resolution of this private matter, while the President was in favor of his remaining in this position. “And in reality, he came back!”finally recalls Laurent Tapie.