Catherine (1986 TV series)

Catherine, il suffit d'un amour was a French television series produced by Antenne 2 from 19 March to 11 June 1986, based on the Catherine novels written by best-selling French author Juliette Benzoni. The adaptation stayed more or less true to the original text of Benzoni's story about Catherine[1] and her adventures in the Kingdom of France during the 15th century of the Middle Ages era.

This article is about the television series Catherine. For the novels, see Catherine (Benzoni novel).
Catherine
Genrehistoric series
Based onCatherine, il suffit d'un amour by Juliette Benzoni
Screenplay byJuliette Benzoni
Jean Chatenet
Directed byMarion Sarraut
StarringSee cast below
Music byRobert Viger
Country of originFrance
Original language(s)French
No. of episodes60
Production
Producer(s)Henri Spade
Catherine Jurquet (production assistant)
Running time26 minutes
Release
Original networkAntenne 2
Original release19 March –
11 June 1986

The screenplay was written by Benzoni and Jean Chatenet, and directed by Marion Sarraut, who had already successfully directed another of Benzoni's best-selling novel series Marianne with Corinne Touzet in the leading role.

Plot summary

The story takes place at the time of the Hundred Years' War in the Kingdom of France, during the Armagnac-Burgundian Civil War. John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, is locked in a bitter merciless struggle against the Armagnacs, supporters of the future King Charles VII. During the Parisian riots of 1413, Catherine Legoix, daughter of a goldsmith living on the Pont-au-Change, tries to save a young Armagnac knight, the 16-year old Michel de Montsalvy who is condemned to be hanged for spitting at Duke John and calling him a traitor.

Catherine hides him in the family's cellar, but he and her father are murdered by a cousin, the wealthy butcher Thomas Legoix. 13-year old Catherine and her mother flee to Dijon to the home of her maternal uncle Mathieu Gautherin, a merchant and winegrower. They are accompanied by Sara the Black, a young gypsy who had previously hidden the fugitives in the cour des miracles house of the beggar Barnaby of the Cockleshell. The attempt to save Michel de Montsalvy changes her life forever. Years later, after growing up to be a golden haired violet eyed beauty, Catherine meets a wounded knight; the noble Arnaud de Montsalvy, one of Joan of Arc's captains, and Michel de Montsalvy's younger brother.

Catherine and Arnaud fall in love at first sight, but when Arnaud finds out that Catherine is related to the family who butchered his older brother, he tells her he does not kill her only because she is a woman. Her outstanding beauty attracts the attention of Duke Philip the Good who desires her and orders his treasurer Garin de Brazey to marry Catherine so she can be received at court, despite her low birth. As Catherine believes Arnaud is about to marry Isabelle de Sévérac, she becomes the mistress of the powerful Duke, and he showers her with titles, castles, jewellery, and servants. She becomes the most beloved favourite at his courts in Dijon and Bruges, where she meets important figures such as Flemish painter Jan van Eyck, Jean Lefèvre de Saint-Rémy, Gilles de Rais, Jacques Cœur, and Yolande d'Aragon.

After their four-year-old son Philippe de Brazey dies, she discovers Arnaud de Montsalvy never married. Never having been able to forget her hopeless passion for the proud knight, she travels to the beleaguered city of Orléans where Arnaud and the other captains of Joan of Arc are fighting against the English. During her stay in Orléans she meets Joan of Arc who saves her life, after Catherine has been condemned to death for treason and spying for the enemy.

The road to happiness for the heroine is arduous. She must undergo many adventures; men fall desperately in love with her and my life is in danger, she is hunted down like a criminal and condemned to die more than once, until finally she becomes the beloved wife of Arnaud de Montsalvy, Lord of the Châtaignerie in Auvergne and Captain in the service of King Charles VII.

Cast

Main characters

Supporting characters

Production

The television series was a co-production between Antenne 2 (succeeded by France 2) and SFP. The producer of the series was Henri Spade, who followed the success of the Marianne series which aired in 1983 justified the new project Catherine, il suffit d'un amour.

Conception and development

In the press review in 1983 for "Marianne, une étoile pour Napoléon", Benzoni writes: "Thanks go to Marion Sarraut, director after my heart... provided with a heart, sensibility and talent, a great artistic sense and an astonishingly safe flair to choose interpreters".

In the weekly magazine Télé Star said: "I do not want a director other than Marion".[2] Marion Sarraut and Juliette Benzoni had a great admiration for each other. Benzoni and Jean Chatenet wrote the screenplay. Confidently she agreed in 1985 to the filming of Catherine, il suffit d'un amour. Two years of preparation by director Marion Sarraut - 200 actors - 1,500 costumes - 45 technicians - 130 horses.

The horses were trained by Mario Luraschi, horse trainer and stuntman both for French and international cinema.

Casting

For the male leading role, Marion Sarraut said for an article in November 1985[3] that Pierre-Marie Escourrou did not correspond at first to the idea of the personality she had in mind - however after his audition she knew that she had found the perfect Arnaud de Montsalvy. The yet unknown young actress Claudine Ancelot was the perfect Catherine de Montsalvy.

As a special bonus, popular French actors and actresses were engaged to play cameo roles in Catherine, the cast was joined by Geneviève Casile of the Comédie-Française, Jean-François Poron, Philippe Clay, Pascale Petit and Dora Doll.

Filming

The shooting of the Catherine television series has lasted for 15 months. The indoor scenes were shot at the Buttes-Chaumont SFP studios in Paris, and the outdoor scenes were filmed on location in Burgundy, Chaumont, Blois, Auvergne, Château de Sully-sur-Loire, Villefranche-de-Conflent, and Le prieuré de Marcevol. The oldest quarters of the city at Castelnou in the Pyrenees served as Montsalvy, the home of Catherine and Arnaud. Scenes set at the Alhambra in Granada were shot at the castle of the Kings of Majorca in Perpignan.

Music

The music was composed by Robert Viger (Éditions des Alouettes),[4] who had already composed several soundtracks such as "Les amours romantiques"[5] for a French television series. Viger composed already the television soundtrack for the successful Marianne back in 1983. Juliette Benzoni's Marianne, une étoile pour Napoléon (six books) was the first of the novel series filmed for French television.

Critical reception

On 19 March 1986, Catherine, il suffit d'un amour was proclaimed "the largest soap opera ever created in France", it was broadcast at 13:30 CET each afternoon during the week. Several critics praised the lavish scale of the production, comparing it to popular American television soaps such as Dynasty and Dallas.

The daily national newspaper Le Monde wrote: "Un soap opera? Certes! Mais realise avec panache Il est patent que les acteurs s’y sont vraiment eclates. Et c’est contagieux... pourquoi pas?"[1] (A soap opera? Certainly! But with panache. It is clear that the actors really go for broke. And it's contagious…why not?)

Home media

In December 2007, the French book sales club France Loisirs released the series on DVD. The complete collection consists of five boxes with ten discs. For the covers of the DVD boxes, they used images from the 1986 series, but there were no English subtitles and no extras were also included.

See also

References
  1. Woodrow, Alain (18 March 1986). "Il etait une fois" [Once upon a time]. Le Monde (in French). Paris.
  2. Bovet, Henri (15 March 1986). ""Catherine" le XV siecle en feuilleton fleuve sur antenne 2" ["Catherine" the fifteenth century in serial drama on antenne 2]. Tele Star (in French). Paris.
  3. Merle, Pierre (November 1985). "Catherine il suffit d'un amour: 24 hueres pour A2" [Catherine just a love: 24 hours for A2]. Télé Journal (in French). Paris.
  4. Robert Viger, composer of Catherine tv-soundtrack
  5. Les amours romantiques, Music by Robert Viger
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