Un Si Grand Soleil: “Christophe is going to fall into horror” … The creator tells us all about the next intrigues

HelloCine: Such a Great Sun recently entered its season 5 and the 1000th episode aired this week. How do you view these first four years and the success of the series, which managed to establish itself when other daily soap operas already existed?

Olivier Szulzynger (creator of the soap opera): All I can say is that it happened very quickly. I feel like the first episode aired yesterday. It is a very young program. Four years have passed and I’m quite surprised (laughs).

You weren’t tempted to make the 1000th episode a bit apart, centered on a strong event, as was the case in tomorrow belongs to us last year ?

No, I don’t see why we should offer something strong at the 1000th episode, and not at the 888th. Is it fetishism (laughs)? Honestly, no, that didn’t cross our minds. Besides, viewers don’t know it’s the 1000th episode, nobody counts them.

It’s a non-event for the public, it doesn’t exist. This is something that only interests the media or internally. We didn’t even have a pot or a party to celebrate this 1000th episode. The most important thing is that people find their soap opera every night. And you shouldn’t disappoint them. So each episode has to be strong and important.

This summer, the series was marked by several departures: Alicia Dadoun (Lucille), Elizabeth Margoni (Maryline), Pauline Paolini (Miriam), and Leonie Dahan-Lamort (Camille). How do you manage all of this as a creator and screenwriter? Was it a bit complicated?

These are slightly different stories. But each year, the actors, who are very numerous, tell us if they want to continue or if they want to take a break. And according to their desires we imagine intrigues. It’s quite usual for us.

Afterwards, maybe now that viewers know the characters better, these departures affect them more, it’s possible. But that’s the life of soap operas. We will have other departures, arrivals too. It’s like that, it’s a flow.

The actors are very involved, so I understand that they may want to do something else after two, three or four years. And then some don’t live in Montpellier, and it can be hard to be away from family and friends. It’s not more complicated than that to manage. It is sure that it is often a shame, because we would like to be able to keep our “friends” on the series. But we adapt.

You still made a radical choice by killing the character of Myriam, when she could simply have left. Did you have this desire to cause a real shock to the public to revitalize the plot?

Not at all. It’s just that Pauline Paolini couldn’t work with us anymore. Suddenly, she had a real problem. So we had to decide that in a weekend. And getting the character of Myriam to leave in two days was impossible. So we did it as quickly and as best we could.

When someone says to you “I need to leave as soon as possible”, the fastest is unfortunately to kill the character. Because a departure must still be justified, it takes a month or two. Especially since Myriam was the boss of L Cosmétiques and she had a pretty strong love story.

So, no, we didn’t do it to surprise the public. We were the ones surprised (laughs). Months of work were already planned behind, we really had to adapt. But that’s life.

Despite the departure of Lucille, are we still going to continue to follow journalistic intrigues through the character of Marc Mourre?

Sure. As you know, we are lucky to have a partnership with one of the biggest newspapers in France, Midi Libre. We shoot in the premises of the newspaper, it gives us real credibility, I was very proud that they accepted.

And so, yes, we have every intention of continuing to tell stories with Marc (César Méric). And there are other characters in the premises of the Midi Libre. As long as they don’t kick us out anyway (laughs). Because a film crew in a newsroom is not easy for them. They earn their place in heaven (laughs).

The last few weeks have been punctuated by the intrigue about Christophe, who has committed several murders. You had this desire for a long time to tell the construction of a real villain with Christophe?

Yes, we started the season with Christophe’s story, which will continue over the months. We’ve been thinking about the evolution of this character for a long time. Is a serial killer a villain, I don’t know (laughs). But, yes, we have already planned the sequel and there is the desire to continue working with Hubert Benhamdine and to follow the complexity of Christophe’s character.

There is a real ambiguity, Christophe will gradually switch to horror. There is a darkness that will gradually invade it. We will take our time. There will be several chapters. That said, even if we want to keep this ambiguity, we don’t want to fall into caricature. Are we going to get there? The public will tell us. But I hope it will be successful, and it will be one of the axes of this year, absolutely.

Screenshot/FTV

It’s complicated, we imagine, to have a recurring character who kills people and who is in a relationship with a judge. Is that the whole point? Manage to keep it recurring in the series as long as possible?

Absolutely, it’s not easy but it’s the challenge that is interesting and fun. Obviously, sooner or later there will be a payment, there will be consequences. But when, I can’t tell you. We want to tell this story. We had foreseen this destiny for a long time, we have been working on it for a year. That’s why we put Christophe with Cécile. We had an idea in mind.

The new main arc of the series is a kind of modern Romeo and Juliet between Thaïs and Damien, which ends in tragedy since Damien is found dead at his home, of an apparent suicide. Did you want to address the sometimes devastating power of social networks through this plot?

To start, I want to say that I am currently discovering the work of actors on the air, they are really doing a great job. This is where we say to ourselves “Damien is great, why did we kill him?”, but hey, it’s too late (laughs).

The plot will tell how Thaïs will mourn. Will she get there? And we’re also going to follow this investigation, to find out if Damien committed suicide or if he was actually killed. And if so, why ? And of course the power of the internet, whether it’s social networks or viral videos, is something we’re dealing with here and which will come back later.

It’s hard to render on screen in fiction, because a Twitter feed doesn’t give very interesting images, but it’s something that totally fascinates me. The hatred that occasionally pours out on Twitter, for example, is very surprising. With the impunity that goes with it of course. We have already dealt with this aspect a little on the Senso arch, and here we come back to it. And I think that we will be interested again in this kind of themes in the future.

Is Thaïs destined to stay in the series beyond this ark?

Yes of course. Lila Guiraud is incredible so, as long as she wants, we will continue to follow this character. This afternoon we just launched in writing a new adventure of Thaïs and Kira. It’s a great duo.

Finally, with the departure of Camille, whom we adored, we had the opportunity to give Kira a new best friend. They are more adult, it opens up a lot of perspectives. We will follow this group of young people, also with Louis, Lili, and Robin. Robin, we see him a little bit at the moment, but he’s an important character in the fifth season, who we’re going to see grow. Just like Lily.

Screenshot/FTV

Are we finally going to be entitled to a love story between Kira and Louis? Is it going to be a red thread for season 5, like Christophe?

I will not answer this question (laughs). But of course it’s one of the big questions of the season. Will Louis end up falling for Kira? It’s a very nice plot. Coline Ramos-Pinto and Sylvain Boccara are excellent actors, so we are delighted to have this common thread running through these characters.

The next episodes will also see Johanna have a nice encounter and Guilhem experience something quite dramatic. What can you say about these new storylines?

Aurore Delplace was a little absent last year because she had a baby. But she came back, she really wants to continue with us, and so we have a lot of things happening for Johanna. She will meet Paul, who may not be as friendly and charming as he seems. And then she will have a big conflict with Yann (Constantin Balsan), one of the police station cops. They’re going to hate each other very much, it’s going to be an important part of future arches.

As for Guilhem (Manuel Blanc), he is going to marry Sylvie, but it is not going to end very well. That’s what I can say without too many spoilers.

There is also an ark that arrives a little later on Eve, right?

Yes, there are going to be several intrigues on Eve (Emma Colberti). Slightly sulphurous intrigues. There will be seduction, sex, transgression. It will keep us busy for a good part of the year.

Fabien Malot/FTV

A bit like everything that revolves around Alix (Nadia Fossier) and her art gallery. It’s a big investment and it’s a setting that we want to promote this year, so we’ve chosen to put energy into this setting and we’re going to follow Alix in her adventures (laughs). She will also engage Hélène (Sophie Le Tellier), there will be plenty of adventures around this universe. I find that quite funny. I really like contemporary art and it allows us to tell light and funny stories. What the character of Alix totally allows.

Speaking of Hélène, the plot that pits her against Claire (Melanie Maudran) is it really finished?

I hope not (laughs). For me it’s not over, but the rest must be very different. What is certain is that the neighborhood dispute is over. But there is still this electrical tension between these two women. And it will continue.

We were talking earlier about Christophe, who is becoming a very troubled character. Can we hope to see Eliott again, the son of Eve, who also had his share of shadows and complexity?

It’s not planned, but I would love to. I think that Stéphane Monpetit would eventually be ready to come back, but we would have to write something very strong to him, that we make him a good proposal for Eliott. We haven’t come up with the right idea yet.

Things had gone really well with Stéphane, both professionally and personally, but we realized together that we shouldn’t do too much plotting so as not to repeat ourselves. So if we want to bring him back, we need the right plot. We can’t bring him back to play the same thing over and over again. Maybe in a year or two, anything is possible.

Did the broadcast of bonus episodes this summer to catch up on the broadcast give you the desire for a real bonus?

I loved what Anne Holmes (the program director of France Télévisions, editor’s note) replied to you on this subject recently (laughs). I have the same position as her. I don’t really want us to go into a prime.

We have a very exposed panel, which sometimes jumps due to current events, and at times we will have to catch up on episodes because I don’t want us to end up with Christmas at Easter. So if we already have special evenings from time to time, to catch up on a possible delay, I don’t see the point of making additional bonuses. I prefer to focus on everyday life.