Heroine of “The man of our lives” alongside Odile Vuillemin and Héléna Noguerra, Flore Bonaventura is doing well in the M6 series. She comes back for us on her journey, the roles that mattered to her, and her desires as an actress.
This is the revelation of The Man of Our Lives, of which M6 is broadcasting the last two episodes tonight. Alongside Odile Vuillemin, Héléna Noguerra and Elodie Frégé, actress Flore Bonaventura, seen in particular in Grand Hôtel and Commissaire Magellan, plays Oriane, a nurse who recently inherited her mother’s fortune and who marries Amaury (Jonathan Zaccaï), a surgeon who looks good in every way and is definitely the man of her dreams.
But what Oriane does not know is that her husband is a manipulator who seduces women with the aim of defrauding them. And that she is not his first victim. Nor his last. Far from there.
In just a few scenes, Flore Bonaventura manages to hold her own, even though she is the face least known to the general public among the female quartet at the heart of this thriller. And this despite an already busy filmography.
It must be said that she shows great accuracy in the skin of this woman already haunted by a complicated past and who sees her life completely falter because of this “stranger” whom she married. Without knowing what trap she was falling into.
“I am very proud of this series and this role”confides Flore Bonaventura about The man of our lives. “There are very beautiful themes, such as sorority, solidarity between women. But it goes beyond that. Oriane is a very beautiful character that I fully wanted to defend. It was a proposal that I did not couldn’t refuse. Especially since I knew a little about the work of Frederic Berthe, director. I really wanted to work with him.”.
David KOSKAS/SIBARO FILMS/SHINE FICTION/M6 Flore Bonaventura and Jonathan Zaccaï in The Man of Our Lives.
“Oriane evolves a lot over the course of the series”she explains when asked what touched her in her score. “She discovers the power she has within her. She is very weakened by her family history, by the death of her mother from a psychiatric illness, and this fragility means that she lets herself be driven a little in her life by the man she chooses, who is a little older, a little paternalistic. And what I liked was to go from fragility to strength, and to transcend all that”.
Even if the broadcast is in progress on M6, the online preview of the series on Salto this summer has allowed her to have feedback on her performance which seems to confirm her in the idea that it is a role who counts : “I received testimonials from people who loved the series and were very touched by the character of Oriane, to whom miseries happen. She’s a bit of the phoenix of the series. She takes it all in whip, she is less solid than the others, and she falls a thousand times higher than them. But she manages”.
From Commissioner Magellan to Cédric Klapisch, there is only one step
Highlighted in 2009, at the age of 21, thanks to the series Commissioner Magellan, in which she played Juliette, the eldest daughter of the hero played by Jacques Spiesser, Flore Bonaventura has always wanted to become an actress. “I started the theater at 11, and from there I knew that I would be an actress. I did everything to become one”.
“My participation in Commissioner Magellan, in which I played for four or five years, was very formative. I was very young, and I found the same team, the same technicians in each episode, it was very benevolent . I learned all the codes at that time. And with Jacques Spiesser we loved each other. There are worse partners (laughs)”.
The one who cites Romy Schneider as her absolute model who made her want to do this job continues with roles in The Little Murders of Agatha Christie, My two loves with Bernard Le Coq, or Like brothers by Hugo Gélin in the cinema .
But it was really the year 2013 that marked a turning point in her career, when she landed the leading role in the spy series La Source for France 2 and appeared in the cast of Chinese Puzzle by Cédric Klapisch. A foray into the world of the L’Auberge Espagnole trilogy, which earned her a César nomination in the Best Female Hope category.
FTV
Flore Bonaventura shares the poster for the series La Source with Clotilde Courau
“It was a big start”confides Flore Bonaventura, who has fond memories of her New York adventure with Chinese Puzzle. “This film remains completely rooted in me because I was a fan of L’Auberge Espagnole, it’s totally my generation. So when I found myself in New York, facing Romain Duris and the whole team, I couldn’t believe my eyes. And then Cédric is a great acting director, it was an incredible experience”.
Full of hindsight on this profession and on his career, the interpreter of Oriane in The man of our lives admits, however, that a happy event has come, in a certain way, to put a brake on his career. Even if she obviously does not regret anything.
“This year stands apart because of The Source and Chinese Puzzle, but also because I got pregnant. I had the joy of becoming a mother. It was great. And at the same time it took a brake on my career when I was “going up”. “.
“I am very happy to be old”
After her pregnancy, Flore Bonaventura continues her journey on television and in the cinema and is illustrated in particular in Les Souvenirs, Paradise Beach, Roches Noires, The Shadows of Lisieux, The First Forgotten, The Promise of Fire and Sauver Lisa.
In 2020, we find her in the cast of the TF1 series Grand Hôtel, a modern adaptation of the Spanish saga in which she rubs shoulders with Carole Bouquet, Victor Meutelet (Les Innocents) and Solène Hebert (Tomorrow belongs to us). The opportunity for her to be directed by Jérémy Minui, whom she knows very well and with whom she has just collaborated again for a double episode of I3P with Marc Lavoine.
“It was great to find Jérémy who is a friend”tells us Flore Bonaventura about this director to whom she has remained faithful for years. “I3P is our third project together, we’ve known each other since we were 18. He started out as an actor and we shot a series together called My father sleeps in the attic, which was intended for KD2A and aired on TV5 Monde. We met there and then we became friends. He made me turn in his short films, and the rest we know, we never lost sight of each other”.
Intended to become a recurring series if successful, Grand Hôtel disappoints audiences on TF1 and ends after a single season. But Flore Bonaventura, who played a maid who found herself at the heart of the plot in this luxurious soap, does not seem too disappointed by this judgment and fortunately moved on a long time ago.
François LEFEBVRE / CAPA / TF1
Flore Bonaventura embodies Hélène in Grand Hôtel in 2020.
“I’m not sure what happened with this series to be honest, it didn’t take as long as the channel hoped. But I didn’t experience it as a disappointment, I played this I had to play, it was a great adventure. I think that, to be honest, I would have preferred that there was a season 2 of The man of our lives for example, even if I had to get into something something recurring. It was a great shoot. And with Odile, Héléna and Elodie we forged a real bond. We met and it was immediate”.
A great adventure which, unless surprised, should not have a sequel since the plot is closed at the end of the fourth episode broadcast this evening on M6. What is certain is that Flore Bonaventura has no shortage of projects and that this character of Oriane – a real leading role as she had not had for a few years – seems to mark a new turning point for this actress from 34 years old who says she is delighted to finally have access to more mature roles.
“I just turned Murders on the Côte Fleuriewith Nicholas Gob and Marie-Christine Barrault. The script is really interesting and I love Nicolas Gob, with whom I had played in The Promise of Fire, so I was delighted to find him again. And I also shot The Village of the Sleepystill for France 3, with Lola Dewaere and Aurelien Wiik“.
A detective TV movie which, for the first time, allows him to explore an unprecedented register: “In this unit with Aurélien Wiik, I play a mother for the first time”confides Flore Bonaventura, who is struggling to hide the joy that the recent proposals that have been made to her give her.
“I feel like I’ve aged a bit, which in absolute terms could depress me (laughs). But it gives me a new opening for roles. Because I was middle-aged for a long time, in a way. Restricted to teenage roles. Today I can’t play 25-year-old women too much. So I’m very happy to be getting old (laughs). I feel that I’m being offered projects for more and more interesting”.
His dream now? “To play in a fiction in costumes. Or to make a biopic of a singer, because I love to sing. To play a rockstar, I would love to. To have to identify completely with someone, to copy their gestures, that’s something which fascinates me”.