A happy man: the true story that inspired the screenplay of this film

How to approach the issue of transidentity in a comedy? Tristan Séguéla took up the challenge in A happy man, broadcast Saturday October 7, 2023 at 9:09 p.m. on Canal+. But where did this idea come from, with very mixed results?

“While Jean, a very conservative mayor of a small town in the North, is campaigning for his re-election, Edith, his wife of forty years, tells him news that she can no longer keep quiet… Deep down in her being, she is – and always has been – a man”. Here is the pitch of the film A happy man, broadcast Saturday October 7, 2023 at 9:09 p.m. on Canal+. To play the main roles, director Tristan Séguéla (who also worked on the series Tapie) chose Fabrice Luchini and Catherine Frot. Although the film received a very mixed reception from the press and spectators, it draws its inspiration from a very current subject and even a true story.

What true story inspired A Happy Man?

As the director tells it in the press kit for the film, it was the screenwriters who gave him the idea. “Originally, Guy Laurent and Isabelle Lazard told me that they had the idea of ​​writing this film after being inspired by the journey of someone close to them who made her gender transition at the age of fifty and who did everything to preserve his marriage”, he says. Neither one nor two, they embark on this project and cast their actors. Catherine Frot confided that she had some apprehension at the beginning, asking “do a day of testing” and having hesitated before accepting the role. But Tristan Séguéla wanted to be reassuring: “comedy still remains a wonderful way to deal with a hot topic. Well, hot… I hope the film proves that it doesn’t have to be.”

How did director Tristan Séguéla choose to treat the subject of transidentity in his film?

However, the director and his actors refused to “fall into mockery”. Instead of pointing the finger at Edith’s character, the script chose to put Jean at the center of the questions and the comedy. “I wasn’t afraid to press where it hurts on the side of Jean and his collaborators, who have no shortage of flaws, but, it’s true, I was very attentive to the laughter that could provoke the character of Edith/Eddy. (…) Even if the film is above all a comedy, it is a comedy which I hope will make you think.”, he explained. For the main actress, the goal of this film was simple: to educate and familiarize the general public with the issue of transidentity. “Gender dysphoria has long been silenced and, despite its recent media coverage, many people still do not know that it exists and many others do not understand how it can exist,” she said in the press kit.