For his return to the air after three years of absence, Thierry Ardisson strikes hard with Hôtel du temps, a documentary where, via special effects, he interviews Dalida as if she were with him. Monday May 2 at 9:10 p.m. on France 3.
What exactly can we see in hotel of time ?
Thierry Ardisson: Above all, a documentary that mixes archive footage and interviews, but impossible interviews. Since there are no more living stars, I interview the dead! The program is divided into three acts: what people know about the legend, his private life then his origins and finally, an epilogue where the star speaks post mortem.
How do you achieve the feat of resurrect Dalida and interview her as if she were in front of you?
We owe everything to the artificial intelligence and prowess of Mac Guff, who uses face retriever and voice cloning techniques. Basically, we put in the bike as many images of Dalida as possible and the machine does deep learning. Then, we put the face and the voice that we created on that of the actress who plays Dalida, Julie Chevallier.
This deep fake process (already seen in It’s Canteloup) is often decried because it can be misused. You can say anything to anyone…
We must go beyond the a priori that we can have. I am the first to use deep fake in a positive and cultural way. All the sentences spoken by Dalida in hotel of time were actually spoken or written by her. Even if what I’m doing is legal, I ask for permission from the rights holders and I work with them. As it happens, Orlando (Dalida’s brother, editor’s note) helped me a lot.
How do you work for the interview part?
I write a screenplay and play some kind of Jeopardy. I have the answers and I write the questions. I “spectacularize” culture.
Are you preparing other numbers?
I hope the channel isn’t waiting for the scores (audience, editor’s note) to continue, but the idea would be to do three a year. I am working on Colouche. I would also like to do Johnny. Even though my show costs half of Murders in Brides-les-Bains (1.2 million euros, editor’s note), for a documentary, it’s expensive. A guy from production came to see me by the way, telling me that we’d save money if I didn’t get younger myself. I refused.
Why do you also rejuvenate by the same process?
To piss off Michael Drucker! (He laughs.) All my life, he told me to quit drinking and smoking. I prove to him that it is I who finish the fresher of the two.
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