CALL MY AGENT/ Dix pour cent
West Coast Premiere • TV Series • Comedy • France, 2015
Blu-ray • Color • Season 1 • 6 x 52 min • Episodes 1&2
Directed by: Cédric Klapisch (2 episodes), Lola Doillon (2 episodes), Antoine Garceau (2 episodes)
Written by: Dominique Besnehard, Fanny Herrero, Julien Messemackers, Michel Vereecken
Developed by: Fanny Herrero
Produced by: Dominique Besnehard (Mon Voisin Productions), Mother Production, Ce Qui Me Meut
Cast: Camille Cottin (Andréa Martel), Thibault de Montalembert (Mathias Barneville), Grégory Montel (Gabriel Sarda), Liliane Rovère (Arlette Azémar), Fanny Sidney (Camille Valentini).
International Sales: TF1International
Original Boadcast: France 2, October 2015
In this acclaimed meta-comedy from France 2 and showrunner Fanny Herrero, four talent agents at the semi-fictitious ASK Agency stop at nothing to hold down the fort after the accidental death of the agency founder. Based on the real-life experiences of former top-tier agent Dominique Besnehard, each episode features stars like Cécile de France, Françoise Fabian, and Nathalie Baye playing ironic versions of themselves as they try to unload their personal and professional baggage onto the backs of Mathias, Gabriel, Andrea, Arlette and young Camille, the naïve trainee watching the comic chaos in utter disbelief. But if managing the ambitions of the stars sometimes seems a tad too ambitious for the team, it’s because they all have plenty of baggage of their own.
Call My Agent crowned a year of artistic triumphs brought about by bolder programming decisions at France 2. At the creative reins is veteran showrunner Fanny Herrero, who has established bona fides ranging from period drama, Un village français (2009 -), to the Afghanistan-based sitcom Kabul Kitchen (2012-). Her aide-de-camp is Dominique Besnehard, actor, producer, and, as the former agent to some of France’s biggest stars, a man with an inexhaustible supply of anecdotes from which to draw comedic inspiration. Besnehard took his original idea to Canal+ in 2006, where the project lost momentum in development. France 2 exhumed the show in 2011, agreeing to green-light with very little creative intervention. Putting the visual signature on the show is prolific director Cédric Klapisch, whom many will know from his comedic hit features L'Auberge espagnole (2002, COLCOA 2013) and Chinese Puzzle (COLCOA 2013). Always juggling several projects, Klapisch directed two episodes of Call My Agent while prepping his 13th feature, Le vin et le vent, currently in post.
