Night to remember
Nos vies en l’air (A Night to Live) writer Margaux Bonhomme discusses the challenging themes and format at the heart of this French coming-of-age drama, which centres on two desperate teens who find solace in strangers as they face a decision between life and death.
At the start of French drama Nos vies en l’air (A Night to Live), teenagers Mina and Ocean are strangers from different backgrounds. Yet over the course of one night, set over eight half-hour episodes, they form a unique bond that will change their lives forever.
That’s because when they first meet, they are both standing on the same Parisian rooftop, sharing the same intention to jump off the edge and take their own lives. Trying to ignore the other and follow through with their plans, they find they are bound together. They aren’t afraid to die – but can they find the courage to live again?
Based on the novel by Manon Fargetton, the series comes from writer Margaux Bonhomme, who partnered with Wanda Productions to bring the source material to the screen. It then launched locally last year on France Télévisions’ Slash before being screened among the Berlinale Series Selects at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival. France TV Distribution is handling international sales.
“We’re receiving so much positive feedback. It’s really nice, I must say,” Bonhomme tells DQ. “It’s been hard work. There was lots of research, and sometimes we thought the project would never be finished. But then in the end I’m happy and confident about what I did and very happy with the result too.”
Since the show aired, the writer has been touched by the swathes of people who have responded to the series, particularly to the atmosphere of the show and the relationship between the central characters, which Bonhomme has found especially gratifying. “That means these characters work,” she says. “It was hard to make them work and make them believable.”
A key part of the series is the clash of cultures between the two protagonists. Bullied teen Mina, played by Inès Kermas, lives with a single mother who believes Mina is old enough to fend for herself, leaving her home alone too often – leading to rising feelings of abandonment. To fill this void, Mina spends a lot of time with best friend Alix, but finds herself as an outsider when she starts a new school.
Meanwhile, Ocean (Anthony Goffi) grew up in a life of privilege, but one that was marked by his mother’s chronic depression that led to her own suicide one year before the series starts. Now living in conflict with his father, who was largely absent from his childhood, Ocean has cut himself off from his emotions and fills his life with parties, drink and drugs.
When they meet on the rooftop, a sad and depressed Mina faces the challenge of accepting her true self and building her self-confidence, while seemingly outgoing and upbeat Ocean must break down the armour he has surrounded himself with and confront the guilt he feels for his mother’s death.
“What I’m happy about is hopefully young people can relate to them, especially the fact they come from two different universes and social backgrounds,” Bonhomme says. “What they have been confronted with in the past are subjects that are very strong, and everybody has been very touched by what they go through before they step on that roof.
“In the end, they’re the most desperate people, of course. You should never judge them. That’s probably something we wanted to say, that you should you never judge from appearances and how people are. Ocean, even though he looks OK, he’s not OK at all.”
What brings them together is the shared disconnect they feel from other people, and through the series, they help each other re-establish that connection to their true selves and the world around them. “That’s what saves them,” Bonhomme continues. “What we’re asking and suggesting is for people to connect more and to talk. That’s what really saves both characters in the story.”
Part of the challenge of writing the series was juggling the story’s two timeliness, with Mina and Ocean meeting in the present while flashbacks inform viewers of their individual pasts and how they each made the decision to climb to the rooftop. Bonhomme was inspired by series such as This is Us and Big Little Lies, and the latter’s director, the late Jean-Marc Vallée, but always chose to go with her instinct when it came to narrative choices relating to how and when to revert to the past.
“The best decisions came when we actually stuck to our characters, and every episode related to a step forward for the character,” she says. “So the flashbacks relate to what she or he experienced during that episode.”
The problem posed by incorporating flashbacks into the story fed into Bonhomme’s wider task, which was to make the source material work as a TV show. The book is written in the first person, so Bonhomme considered early on whether to apply a voiceover to the series. Ultimately, she decided not to follow that path, and instead focused on the events and actions that would demonstrate the characters’ internal thoughts and feelings.
“So flashbacks and their backstory helped a lot. That was the first part. And then the fact of it being a series and not a feature film meant every episode had to have a theme that would relate to the bigger theme, so that was another that we had to work very hard on,” she says.
A key message in the series is that the one night Mina and Ocean share together doesn’t solve all their problems. “That’s something we insisted on because, with respect to all the young people who are actually very depressed and choosing to kill themselves, it’s not easy at all and it’s not only in one night meeting other people that all the problems are solved,” Bonhomme says.
A Night to Live draws on similar coming-of-age themes to her previous feature film, Head Above Water, and Bonhomme says she is attracted to stories of teenagers and adults who have lived through a childhood they didn’t choose themselves. “That’s exactly what’s happening with Mina and Ocean,” she says. “They have their childhood and they have to carry it like a burden. That’s what they’re going to learn through this series too.”
She began writing the series with Adriana Barbato after building a series bible on the back of conversations with producer Bertrand Levallois, who sought her out to adapt Fargetton’s novel after watching Head Above Water. Then when Barbato left for a prior commitment, Bonhomme was joined by Victor Lockwood to continue mapping out the series and write the scripts. Notably, reckless decisions taken by the protagonists, like jumping between rooftops or crossing a busy highway, were pulled from early drafts owing to the fact that France TV is a public broadcaster and had to maintain a level of responsibility.
That meant the writers had to reassess many of the cliffhangers they had inserted into the series, and find moments that might be even scarier, such as Ocean confronting his father or Mina visiting a friend in hospital.
With a background as a director – she wrote and directed Head Above Water – Bonhomme also formed a close partnership with A Night to Live directors Jonathan Cohen-Berry and Anthony Jorge. “One of the reasons I accepted the show is because I really like what they do. Our universe, our way of filming, is very close,” she says. “Then, of course, I was a bit scared to give away the baby in the end, but they were very respectful and they would involve us very much, especially when talking to the actors about the characters.”
Bonhomme was a familiar face on set during production, and often could be found talking to Kermas and Goffi about their characters. Other cast members include Flavie Delangle (Alix), Adam Abdo (Enzo), Bétina Flender (Miranda), Bastien Savarino (Bastien), Ophelia Kolb (Clémence), Julien Boisselier (Grégoire), Raphaëlle Agogué (Véronique), Nadie Roz (Amira) and Christophe Kourotchkine (Gilbert).
“They were young and quite anxious about this big thing coming to them,” she says of Kermas and Goffi, “so it was very nice to be able to accompany them throughout the shoot. That was lovely. I don’t know if I would have agreed on having the writers talking to the actors, but Anthony and Jonathan have this great capability of involving people.”
Now looking back on making A Night to Live, Bonhomme is grateful to the producers for their commitment to making the show. “They never let me down,” she says. “Carrying the project for three years, I never gave up. And in the end, it paid off. That’s what I would like to say to young audiences: just never give up. Please, please talk to each other.”
Like that? Watch this! Suggested by AI, selected by DQ
Skam France: The French adaptation of the groundbreaking Norwegian series about a group of high-school students in Paris.
La 7 vies de Lea (The 7 Lives of Lea): After finding a young man’s body, Lea is transported back to the 1990s in a bid to solve the mystery behind his death.
3 x Manon: A three-part miniseries about Manon, a 15-year-old girl with an uncontrollable temper. After stabbing her mother, she is sent to a rehabilitation centre where she must prove herself worthy of redemption and plan for her future.
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tagged in: A Night to Live, France Télévisions, France TV Distribution, Margaux Bonhomme, Nos vies en l’air, Slash, Wanda Productions