Our TV favorites from September 3 to 7
Sunday September 3
Name: Hitchcock. First name: Al… ma. We know everything, or almost, about the famous filmmaker: his virtuosity in staging suspense, his attraction to icy blondes, his furtive but systematic appearances in each of his works… On the other hand, we know less about his wife, Alma. Yet she was his unwavering accomplice in the city – 53 years of marriage! – as on screen, as editor and screenwriter of her films until the 1950s. Born one day after Sir Alfred, she frequented film studios from the age of 16, learning the basics of the profession before him. This documentary, preceded by the masterful L’inconnu du Nord-Express, pays homage to him, while not obscuring the other women who mattered in the master’s life – mother, daughter and actresses. Instructive. Pierre-Olivier Boiton
Monday September 4
He’s Charles. Her, Perrine. This creative couple gradually got involved in the game of cultivating the land. Two decades of daily work in an unproductive Normandy valley have not only transformed their environment, but also their lives. The Bec-Hellouin farm (Eure) has become, in the world of permaculture, an example to follow, inspiring many farmers and neo-rural residents. The challenge of this approach is to find a viable and living balance, by nourishing the soil while promoting the development of biodiversity. But also everything that can allow us to imagine another relationship with the agricultural world, such as this profession of “forestry”, market gardener developing productive and environmentally friendly garden forests, which they are bringing to the fore… Dominique Lang
Tuesday September 5
When the Berlin Wall fell, jihadism hardly haunted minds in Europe. However, this ideology, which advocates the use of violence to establish a state governed by the laws of Islam, is already bubbling up on the continent. But at the time, leaders minimized this risk. No one suspects that 150 attacks will hit European soil from 2001 to the present day. To do this, we must reread history differently. In three episodes, director Magali Serre and researcher specializing in these issues Hugo Micheron dissect the evolution of this threat: from the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, between 1992 and 1995, where the Afghan mujahideen committed abuses against the militiamen Serbians, to the 2015 attacks perpetrated in France via “Londonistan”, nickname of the British capital where a breeding ground of Islamists is organized. This documentary is based on solid analyzes from journalists and soldiers, but also on testimonies from former repentant jihadists. Rigorous and essential work to understand this phenomenon which carries a dual political and security challenge. Be careful, some violent images could put off the most sensitive! Rachel Notteau
When it comes to deep-sea military thrillers, one name has so far been floating around without being contested: In Pursuit of Red October (released in 1984), with its commander played by Sean Connery. The world was then in the middle of the Cold War. Another film, this one French, is about to steal the show: Le chant du loup. Propelled by its critical and public success (more than 1.5 million spectators in theaters in 2019), this contemporary fiction features the work of a certain Chantereine. Also called “Golden Ear”, the young officer specialized in acoustic listening of submarines, an activity at the heart of the nuclear deterrence strategy. Served by a captivating plot, Le chant du loup seduces with its hypnotic and feverish atmosphere. Pierre-Olivier Boiton
Wednesday September 6
In southern China, on the borders of Burma and Laos, is the territory of the country’s last wild elephants. But the theater of the astonishing third and final part of this animal series (to be found on arte.tv until 2026) extends well beyond… Hundreds of kilometers further north, in the province of Yunnan , the presence of a horde guided by a matriarch could indeed be observed in 2020 in areas inhabited by humans. This migration was to cause great damage to the crops. The reason for this unusual behavior? The overpopulation of pachyderms in their reserve. The odyssey followed by drones will have a happy ending: the reunion of the group of adventurers with the sedentary elephants filmed in their natural habitat. Timothée Duboc
If this film were a fruit, it would surely be a grapefruit, at once generous, sweet, sour and bitter. For his sixth production, actor Roschdy Zem, who plays one of the main roles, examines complex family relationships, by turns rough and tender. It is based on his story and that of his younger brother who, in May 2020, suffered a concussion following an accident. In fiction, this drama happens to Moussa, a devoted father and employee, who changes his character. Completely uninhibited, he shares his thoughts without filter, damaging his relationships with those close to him. Roschdy Zem plays Ryad, the brother who succeeded and distanced himself from his family. A serious subject which slides delicately towards comedy. Delphine Loez
In thirty years, three times the surface area of France has gone up in smoke! Canada, the island of Rhodes, Tenerife, Hawaii, but also the forests of our country… Fires are striking everywhere, with their share of destruction of homes and evacuations of populations. Jamy’s world takes up this incandescent subject, preferring pedagogy to ambient catastrophism. Objective: reveal the role of forests through reports and experiences highlighting actions to fight and prevent fires. Thus, in Provence, Jamy was able to attend, on board a Canadair, a training exercise to understand the delicate missions faced by firefighting teams on the ground. This immersion continues with Landes foresters to discover how trees grow back one year after being devastated by flames. Faced with global warming and overexploitation to respond to the global market, which is increasingly greedy for wood, the France 3 magazine reminds us that it is urgent to act, each at their own level, to preserve this essential natural heritage. to life on Earth. Estelle Couvercelle
Thursday September 7
Ten years after its broadcast on Arte, the series which dissected the mysteries of Danish political power, returns for a fourth season, available from June 2022 on Netflix. How far Birgitte Nyborg has come, whom we met when she became Prime Minister! Always played by the impeccable Sidse Babett Knudsen – who saw her career take off with this character and even won a César for best supporting role in 2016 in L’Hermine, alongside Fabrice Luchini – the politician has lost nothing of his ambitions, nor his convictions. Newly appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs, she must deal with a head of government younger than her, loneliness in her private life and the disadvantages of middle age. The sharp pen of Adam Price, the creator of the series, plunges her into the heart of a main plot (which unfolds over eight episodes), in which she must confront an international crisis generated by the discovery of an important deposit oil in Greenland. Will the intoxication of power make him renounce his values? The open ending suggests a sequel. Marie-Hélène Servitie
