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French TV hit Lupin returns for second series

Five months after it became the first major streaming hit of 2021, Lupin will return on Friday with fans desperate to see how Omar Sy's gentleman-burglar escapes the latest cliffhanger.

Published: 9 June 2021 13:28 CEST
French TV hit Lupin returns for second series
Lupin star Omar Sy. Photo: John Macdougall/AFP

Netflix delivered only the first five episodes of the show in January, inspired by the cat-and-mouse novels of Maurice Leblanc from the early 20th century, because the pandemic interrupted filming last year.

Sy plays Assane Diop, a fan of the novels who uses the character of Lupin as he seeks vengeance for his wrongly-accused father.

READ ALSO Five Netflix series that will teach you French as the locals speak it

The combination of a charismatic lead, Parisian backdrops and an undercurrent of race relations made it the first bona fide made-in-France hit for Netflix, which is investing heavily in the country.

But despite the winning ingredients, Sy himself seemed rather perplexed when asked why it was so popular.

“I really don’t know!” he told reporters at a Netflix round-table, laughing.

“When something like that happens the thing is just to embrace it and don’t try to understand. It’s just beautiful, I’m very happy and thrilled.”

READ ALSO How French TV is going global thanks to streaming 

Writer George Kay, who also helped pen recent TV hits Criminal and Killing Eve, said the season takes a tense turn in the second half.

Assane finds himself “in a conflicted situation: do I keep pushing to get revenge for my father or do I focus on being a good dad,” he said at the round-table.

But Kay, who worked alongside French writer Francois Uzan, said Lupin remained a family-friendly show and “the central thing is to make it as fun as possible”.

Paris retains its starring role in the new season, with the Musee d’Orsay, catacombs and Chatelet Theatre making for sumptuous backdrops to the action.

Dubbed into some 15 languages, and subtitled into 30, Lupin topped the Netflix charts in a dozen countries in January, including the first time a French show had done so in the United States.

REVEALED The French in-jokes from TV series Call My Agent

The company said 76 million households watched the first instalment in the first 28 days after its release, beating its main non-anglophone rival, the Spanish crime drama La Casa de Papel (which clocked 65 million household views for its fourth series).

It was a much-needed boost for Netflix after its first foray into the French market, 2016’s Marseille, was panned by critics.

The streaming giant had a rocky start to its relations in France, where it has sometimes been viewed as a threat to the country’s beloved cinemas.

But having opened a swanky new Paris headquarters last year, Netflix has made significant in-roads, partnering with creative associations and schools, and announcing a major production boost for 2021, with 27 films, series and documentaries in the pipeline.

Lupin has also been a boost for French bookshops, with new editions of Maurice Leblanc’s classics racking up more than 100,000 sales since January, according to publisher Hachette.

A smart social media campaign has also helped the show, with one ad featuring Sy in disguise putting up a poster on the Paris Metro.

A recent post snuck a web address (assane-diop.com) into a trailer. The website revealed that a third instalment of Lupin is already on the way.

Member comments

  1. Lupin is back! Can’t wait to start watching. I live in the US and I love hearing my language spoken. Also, the show is of such great quality. Thanks everyone for getting us more Lupin.

  2. The Local has been a great source of information for me. I have lived in the US for 30 years and have missed not knowing what goes on home. Thanks The Lo al for quality reporting.

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PARIS

‘Fantastic but scary’: The new Paris exhibition grappling with Picasso’s controversial legacy

When British fashion designer Paul Smith was asked to oversee a rehang of the Picasso Museum in Paris to mark 50 years since the artist's death, he decided to have some fun.

Published: 6 March 2023 16:02 CET
'Fantastic but scary': The new Paris exhibition grappling with Picasso's controversial legacy

The 76-year-old designer’s playful approach does away with the usual art gallery white cube and piles on the colour.

It is simple yet highly effective: Pablo Picasso’s blue period is presented in a room painted and carpeted in rich dark blue, the bullfighting sketches on blood-red walls, the “Luncheon on the Grass” in verdant green.

“I had carte blanche to do whatever I want in the whole museum, which was obviously fantastic but also quite scary,” Smith told AFP.

The museum approached him five years ago with the commission, and Smith spent months trawling through some 200,000 works from its archives.

He has plucked out little-seen items, including silly and lewd doodles that Picasso made over magazine ads — signs of a mind that was always working.

“He never really stopped,” said Smith. “There were drawings on magazines, on napkins, on newspapers. He was constantly thinking about creating shapes.”

It’s a fun way to start off the exhibition, along with Smith’s favourite piece: a bicycle seat and handlebars that Picasso put together to look like a bull’s head.

“The way he thought about things was fascinating and very interesting,” he said.

“I made it very decorative because the idea is that young school children and teenagers will come and see his work in a different light. Many of us have already seen Picasso many times around the world, so we hope to show it in a new way.”

Six living artists are also featured, including a Black Lives Matter-inspired piece by New Yorker Mickalene Thomas that sits alongside Picasso’s wartime work.

And of course, the trademark Paul Smith coloured stripes also crop up.

“To stay in fashion as an independent company… to stay relevant for all these years, means you’re constantly reassessing, rethinking, which is probably one of the reasons why I got asked to do this exhibition,” Smith said.

The museum faces a constant challenge in finding new ways of venerating an artist whose work is so omnipresent, and whose decidedly old-school views on women have led to some severe #MeToo reappraisals.

“This museum’s job is not to serve as a mausoleum to a great man,” its director Cecile Debray told AFP.

“We want to be open to debates and reflection on Picasso so as to reconsider his work and show its continued vitality.”

Smith’s playful rehang is mostly an opportunity to see the masterpieces in a way that shows how fun and contemporary they still look, but doesn’t entirely shy away from the controversies.

Paintings by Congolese artist Cheri Samba and Nigeria’s Obi Okigbo highlight the debt Picasso owed to African traditions.

Some have accused him of appropriation, though Smith saw an artist who was very open about his inspirations.

“He was never afraid to admit that he took it from Cezanne or took influence from the classics or from Manet,” said the designer. “A lot of creators today don’t really ever admit that somebody’s been an influence.”

Born in October 1881 in Malaga, Spain, Picasso spent most of his life in France and died on April 8th, 1973 on the Cote d’Azur, aged 91.

Dozens of exhibitions and conferences are marking the 50th anniversary of his death around the world, with a new research centre to be opened near the Paris museum in the autumn.

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