Our TV favorites from August 19 to 25

Saturday August 19

“A house is not a living machine. It is the shell of a man, his extension, his spiritual emanation.” This quote from Eileen Gray sums up the thinking that guided this genius designer and architect of the 20th century in the design of villa E-1027 on the heights of the Côte d’Azur, in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin. Abandoned for a long time before being restored, it allows you to see some of the iconic creations of this woman of Irish origin, of whom we know almost nothing (she burned a large part of her archives), but whose works appear in the collections of the great museums of Paris, Dublin, New York… Strolling through this interior, where everything has been thought out and designed down to the smallest aesthetic and practical detail, is a lesson in design. Marie-Helene Servantie

In the first millennium BC. AD, they dominate Europe. Considered barbarians by the Greeks and Romans, the Celts (reconstruction) nevertheless enjoyed an advanced civilization, which the magazine makes us discover The human adventure via this documentary series which plunges us into the Celtic reality, from Anatolia to the British Isles, via Gaul. The first part, At the gates of Rome, takes us to the site of the Battle of the Allia, where the Romans suffered a crushing defeat. Each Celtic tribe minted its currency. They allied in case of danger, as the second episode confirms, The Romans in Gaul, with the decisive battle of Alesia where, entrenched on the oppidum of Alesia, the Gallic chief and his men were surrounded by the Roman legions. Four days of bloody battle, and the result that we know… In 52 BC. AD, all of Europe is occupied. All? No, a region resists the invader! These are the British Isles, which the Romans seize a hundred years later and which are the subject of the third chapter: The revolt of Boudicca, named after the Queen of the Iceni, who united the British tribes against the occupier. Exciting and moving. Muriel Fauriat

Sunday August 20

Hollywood cinema is also a family affair. The Fonda dynasty – the father, Henry, and the children, Jane and Peter – is one of the finest examples. Charles-Antoine de Rouvre delivers here the course of the three actors. Henry began his career in 1930, at the dawn of talkies, while keeping his modesty as a theater actor. The meeting with John Ford allows him to take all the light of the films, while the man is, in the intimate, silent and modest. Jane and Peter grew up without him, and were brought up by a mentally ill mother. The death, by suicide, of the latter will have a severe impact on their lives. Jane started her career in the world of comedy then ventured into a more demanding cinema, in line with her own commitments. His brother, Peter, finds recognition in Easy Rider, a modern road movie, revisiting in his own way the American Wild West of which Henry was a symbol. The Vietnam War is also an event that marked the career of the three actors, until the division. A story that evokes this touching family history, weaving subtle threads between the important films of each other. Dominique Lang

Monday August 21

In 2019, Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt agreed to follow Nathalie Schraen-Guirma for a day on the roads of the Lyon region, so dear to his heart. In this region rich in a diversified heritage, a land of gastronomic excellence, he shares his memories of childhood and youth along a route that began in Oingt, a Beaujolais village which he chose for the beauty of its stones. The first stop offers him a private visit to a place he knows without ever having entered: Sainte-Marie de La Tourette in Éveux. Built in concrete in the second half of the 1950s, this convent, which is Le Corbusier’s last major work in France, is home to a Dominican community of around ten people. Then head to Écully and the Château du Vivier, in the ruins of which the writer played as a child but which, superbly restored, has been welcoming students of 37 nationalities to the Institut Paul-Bocuse since 1990. A stop behind the scenes of the famous Opéra de Lyon (notably the Studio located at the top of the building) precedes the end of this cultural trip to the archaeological site of Saint-Romain-en-Gal. Marie-Helene Servantie

The soft music at the beginning in no way suggests the horror in which the three young heroes of this dantesque film will be plunged. A year before the release of Apocalypse Now by Francis Ford Coppola, Michael Cimino also examines at length and painstakingly the traumas of the Vietnam War over a generation. In three chapters (life before, during and return), it shows everything, even the unthinkable: the abuse suffered by prisoners of war. A drama served by magnetic actors with budding careers: Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken and John Cazale (seriously ill, he died before the theatrical release), not to mention Meryl Streep, his companion, who accepted a secondary but crucial role. , to stay by his side during the filming. Marie-Helene Servantie

Tuesday August 22

For this second evening, Ambre Dupont, a journalist converted into hairdressing, flies first to Kenya. From the capital, Nairobi, where long hair is a mark of financial affluence, to the amazing rituals of the Masai and Turkana peoples, Ambre marvels at her observations. Then head to South Korea. The globetrotter, who expected all the hair eccentricities, echoing the hairstyles of K Pop stars, discovers the way in which social and professional codes constrain youth. Hair length then becomes a vehicle for feminist demands. Between tradition and modernity, Africa and Asia, Ambre questions our societies through an original bias. Anne-Laure Boveron

Wednesday August 23

In 1944, Private Hiroo Onoda is charged with a secret mission: to slow down the advance of the American army in the jungle of an island in the Philippines. For nearly three decades, he and a handful of companions refused to admit Japanese defeat by organizing a guerrilla war to reverse the course of history. This film, directed in 2021 by Arthur Harari, received the César for best original screenplay. A scenario all the more astonishing as it is based on the true story of this last Japanese soldier who surrendered thirty years after the end of the conflict. A sober and captivating story with moving Japanese actors. A story that speaks of madness, indoctrination, war and the collective blindness of peoples. Dominique Lang

With his second-hand sewing machine, Abou intends to reach the top: he will be a great designer of clothes. Recently arrived in France, the young man from Guinea Conakry spends his time imagining outfits and giving them shape. On the networks, the originality of his creations gradually made him known. This documentary plunges into the intimacy of the enthusiast. The camera films him in a school where he is training, at his internship in a hospital laundry or at home. The close-ups of his hands sewing, stitching or cutting subtly underline the precision of this art. But reality never fails to curb dreams and Abou is faced with the difficulty of obtaining papers… The future will tell if his ambition will prevail. Perrine Kempf

Thursday August 24

Serbia, a new destination for this evening, conveys with it “a slightly blurred, perhaps even a little gray image”, as Philippe Gougler notes. We know that it is crossed by the Danube and shaken by numerous conflicts throughout history: do we not speak of it as the “powder keg of the Balkans”? By starting his journey in Novi Sad, the country’s second city, our globetrotter will work to give another vision of the Serbian character – rebellious, but welcoming according to the statements of those concerned – and to discover unusual uses and places. . Like the famous blue train of Marshal Tito (the former president of Yugoslavia, who led it from 1945 until his death in 1980), equipped at the time with all modern comforts and beautifully preserved in a railway cemetery , in the suburbs of Belgrade. A capital whose blocks of buildings still bear the scars of the NATO bombings during the Kosovo war in 1999. By moving away from the cities to sink into the deep countryside, always closer to the inhabitants and of their daily life, the trip reveals its share of surprising landscapes and folk customs. Marie-Helene Servantie

Friday August 25

What a shock for the eccentric policeman with the ch’ti accent and the indestructible chapka! In Double game (replay episode), the investigator finds herself face to face with an unsuspected twin sister… unfortunately too late to meet her. To elucidate her suspicious death, Marleau will treacherously use her resemblance to the missing woman in order to investigate while immersed in her family and professional environment. Corinne Masiero pulls out all the stops, interpreting two characters at odds with each other, beyond their twinness. The opportunity for her to respond to a fine line-up of actors (Pierre-François Martin-Laval, Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet, Christopher Thompson), but also to Pierre Perret, for his first participation in a television fiction. Timothee Duboc

The iconic doll has not finished debating. Barbie: symbol of the liberated woman or imposition of a standard of beauty? This documentary returns to the ambivalences of the toy, created in 1959 by Ruth Handler, founder of the company Mattel. Going against the trend of infants preparing for the role of mother, the adult-looking figurine was thought of as a model of emancipation for young girls. Opening up the field of possibilities, Barbie would allow them to project themselves towards professions usually reserved for men, such as astronauts or scientists. But still with a perfect body, which still arouses strong criticism. In front of the camera, Mattel employees, collector, researcher and journalist follow one another to shed light on the issues of the mythical object which follows the evolutions of its time. Because Barbie wants to be inclusive. In order to represent differences, a doll with Down syndrome has been marketed. However, we must not forget that Mattel is “a toy giant” whose objective is guided by profitability. If it is difficult to have a clear opinion, the viewer will come out with valuable keys to understanding. Perrine Kempf