CNews
2/4/2023
The CANAL+ Original Creation "Django" arrives on screens on January 13. In this series that revisits the western, Matthias Schoenaerts delivers a heartbreaking interpretation of a broken cowboy, desperately trying to reconnect with his daughter.
Head to the Far West in February on CANAL+, with the expected arrival of the original creation "Django". In this European co-production with Sky Original ("The New Pope" and "ZeroZeroZero"), freely inspired by Sergio Corbucci's eponymous film released in 1966, this famous spaghetti western, which had also inspired Tarantino for "Django Unchained" released in 2012, Matthias Schoenaerts ("Rust and Bone") plays the title role.
Opposite the Belgian actor, there is an international cast composed of the young German actress Lisa Vicari ("Dark"), who plays the hero's daughter, Sarah, the British Nicholas Pinnock (seen in "Counterpart"), who lends his features to the troubled John Ellis, and the Swedish magnetic Noomi Rapace ("Millennium", "Prometheus") who plays Elizabeth, the sworn and ruthless enemy of the latter.
THE PITCH
Far West, in the 1860s - 1870s. John Ellis built New Babylon, a city that welcomes and offers redemption to all outcasts, men and women of all backgrounds, races, and creeds.
Haunted by the massacre of his family several years ago,
Django, a lonely and silent horseman, arrives there in search of his daughter.
His hope that she could survive the tragedy is rewarded, because he finds her
there, as she is about to marry John Ellis, the man who adopted her when she
was still a child. Now an adult, Sarah is anything but happy to see her father
again. Holding him responsible for the massacre of their family, she orders him
to leave New Babylon.
Desperate to recover his daughter's love, and convinced that the city is under threat of grave danger, Django resolves to offer help to troubled Ellis to defend the city against Elizabeth Thurman (perfect Noomi Rapace). Ultra-Catholic, the powerful governor of Elmdale, the neighboring city, viscerally hates Ellis, and shows boundless violence for the "sinful" community of New Babylon.
A DECONSTRUCTION OF CODES
Through its contemporary and psychological approach, Django offers a new vision of the western, and the series fascinates precisely by this antagonism, with on one side a male hero struggling with his emotions and on the other a "bad" woman who turns out, of all, the fiercest defender of the patriarchal order. "It was interesting to explore the deconstruction of codes," says Francesca Comencini who, with the production teams, wanted to make "the Django of our time".
On her desire to appropriate the western genre, rather rare nowadays (apart from "Deadwood", "Westworld", or more recently, "Godless"), the artistic director of the project, who also directed the first four episodes - the following ones were directed by Enrico Maria Artiale ("The After Match") and David Evans ("Downton Abbey") - considers that it "allows us to talk about the present moment, because it shows characters in a state of emergency in the face of overwhelming forces. This possibility of living/surviving even makes it possible to talk about the present in a very powerful way," she says.
The epic side, the action scenes, the landscapes... All the ingredients were "fun" for her to use. "It's an oversized cinematic dream with this city in a huge crater," she adds of the setting of New Babylon. Still on the aesthetic side, she explains that she wanted a western where it rained all the time, in "a nod to the visual style of Corbucci who had signed the first western in the mud".
However, the director says she tried to find a balance between fidelity and infidelity to the genre. This is also what explains the choice of music, because "we had to avoid remaking Morricone," she says.
A SAD AND VIOLENT CHARACTER
Regarding the choice of Matthias Schoenaerts for the main role of Django, here a lone rider bruised by the death of his loved ones who wants to reconnect with his daughter, she explains that the Belgian actor was perfectly suited to the character, "a mixture of brutal strength with fragility and tenderness. He had everything for this crisis he is going through, this sadness and this violence, "she insists.
For the actor, "working with the texture of the western was very interesting." However, he specifies that it is indeed "a reinvention, with a contemporary approach", a universe in which he had in any case "very much desire to enter".
According to him, the series mainly addresses "the question of the choices we make in life and how much they affect our future journey, how much they affect the people we love. It's something that everyone can relate to," he said. The trajectory of Django cannot, it is true, leave anyone indifferent.
Splendid sets, magnetic actors, action scenes that skillfully play with the codes of the traditional western, complete to make the series captivating.
The 10 52-minute episodes of "Django" will be
broadcast exclusively on CANAL+ from February 13, 2023, on Mondays at 21pm, at
the rate of two episodes per evening, and available on my CANAL.
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