Tapie: captivating and confusing, the Netflix series will have you glued to your sofa

After months of waiting, the series Tapiethe true-false biopic about Bernard Tapie imagined by the duo Tristan Séguéla / Olivier Demangel, is finally here! Presented as a world premiere during the Canneséries 2023 festival, the series has been available on the Netflix platform since Wednesday, September 13. So does this work, which caused so much discussion and was never approved by the family of the ex-OM boss, deserve your viewing hours? Tele-Leisure gives you the answer…

Tapie : what does the Netflix series say about Bernard Tapie?

True-false biopic, the series does not retrace the entire life of Bernard Tapie, this man of a thousand lives, this romantic character having been a singer, entrepreneur, boss of OM, politician, actor, husband and father. Beginning in the 1960s, when he tried to break into singing under the name “Bernard Tapy”, it ended in 1997 with his imprisonment following the corruption case of the Marseille – Valenciennes match. Thirty years of a life spent making his name a brand, being obsessed with his social ascension, breaking the codes… but also constantly tightrope walking on the line of legality, even if it meant falling heavily. Based on both proven historical facts and pure fiction, the series is a variation on a modern French myth. It will inevitably divide, exactly like Bernard Tapie in his time.

Tapie : should you watch the series on Bernard Tapie with Laurent Lafitte? Our opinion

Clever, funny, captivating, picturesque, extraordinary (in the first sense of the term), cruel, mischievous… The qualifiers pile up from the first episodes of Tapie. And they are confirmed over the course of 7 episodes which imperceptibly build tension and emotion. But the first impression that comes to mind is indeed that of a confusing series, of a work which quickly reveals itself to be exactly the one we expected and exactly the one we did not suspect, of a true-false biopic playing brilliantly between facts and effects, clearly refusing to turn into a simple “Wikipedia series”. Neither completely to charge, nor totally to discharge, Tapie is not a revisionist portrait. It tells a variation of what he was and what he did, of what we imagine of him and of the character he himself created, without glorifying his errors or belittling his successes. This positioning may, of course, disturb some, but it is undoubtedly the one that allows us to find and maintain the right distance with the man, the character, the image and the myth. Is this a big series? History will tell. But one thing is certain: this unidentified serial object has been remarkably thought out and crafted, from the writing to the settings, including the fantastic music and the formidable editing. And this Tapie proves to be extremely entertaining and effective.

Tapie : the great performance of Laurent Lafitte

“I created my version of Bernard Tapie. I did not work from archives. I did not record my voice so that it was perfectly like his. I was not in the imitation. There are unavoidable visual appointments, like the hairstyle and the look. But I started from everything that had been infused in me since my childhood. In the attitude, the voice, the cheekiness, the energy, That’s my feeling. It’s my Bernard Tapie.” explains Laurent Lafitte in the interview he gave to Télé-Loisirs. This reading grid is particularly clear when watching the series. Above all, it clearly reveals itself as the best option to reinterpret this larger-than-life character that Tapie was, to avoid the trap of caricature, to give body, soul and flesh to this man who became a public, media, political figure. . The actor never imitates his real model and yet Bernard Tapie is always present on screen. At the turn of an attack of phrase, carried away by his movements, overwhelmed by his way of occupying space, the spectator guesses it, constantly recognizes him, Tapie is constantly reminded of him. This interpretation advances on a narrow crest line and Laurent Lafitte makes no deviations, impeccable from start to finish, never really Tapie and yet always Tapie. A lesson in play at the heart of a series that has found the right distance.