Les Revenants (The Returned) is a great example of the finest of French television. Set in a beautifully picturesque and remote Alpine village dominated by a huge dam (actual settings were in the Haute Savoie region in the French Alps), the victims of a variety of tragedies, disasters (involving the dam collapsing) and deaths stretching back sometimes 35 years, come back to life and to the village unchanged in age from their death and initially unaware of the passage of time. Each returnee has a specific story and the series gradually unfolds, through flashbacks, the circumstances of their death and how their return affects their family and loved ones.
Whilst there is an extensive cast and a large number of stories, four standout: First is 15 year old Camille Seguret (Yara Pilartz), killed with 30 classmates in a tragic bus crash 3 years earlier. Her story and the reaction of her older sister Lana (Jenna Thiem) and parents Jerome (Frederic Pierrot) and Claire (Adele Cosigny) take center stage at times. Second, 25 year old Simon Dilatre (Pierre Perrier) returns to his fiancé Adele (Clotilde Hesme) after apparently committing suicide 10 years earlier leaving behind a daughter Chloe (Brune Martin) now 10 but Adele is now betrothed to local police Captain Thomas (Samir Guesmi). Third is a complex web between bar owner Milan (Michael Abitboule), his lover Lucy (Ana Guiradot) and brothers Toni (Gregory Gadebois) and Serge (Guillane Gouix) and involving a millennialist Christian church who all decide to end their lives 35 years earlier excepting Pierre Tissier (Jean-Francois Sivadier) then aged 17 who chickens out and now, as a middle aged man, runs a homeless shelter where he carries on the millennialist church. He emerges as a key community leader when the dam bursts at the end of series 1 killing some and leaving many homeless. All these scenarios have complex and involved plot lines with dramatic interlocking developments.
Fourth and perhaps the most compellingly eerie story and character, is the return of 8 year old Victor (Swann Nambotin), apparently murdered 35 years earlier in a home invasion and he arrives unexpectedly into the apartment of single 30 something nurse Julie Myer (Celine Sallette). With no obvious parents and initially almost mute, the two bond closely and quickly. Victor (originally Louis) emerges as a key almost Svengali-like savant child with great powers of premonition and an ability to move around somewhat without physical constraint. He gradually emerges as THE key deceased returnee as his real story gradually unfolds.
The scenery is stunning, the acting is top to bottom regardless of age of the highest quality (standouts were the youngest actors, Pilortz as Camille and a truly stunning performance from Nambotin exuding tremendous restrained power as Victor despite his diminutive size), the story lines (whilst at times a little tortuous) are magnificently told and come together in Series 2 very well, there is all the usual Gallic passion, emotion and sensuality, the mystery and tension is perfectly maintained and the background music is pitch perfect. It is an intense and ambitious project that is compelling and yet not ghoulish or gory. One minor quibble - the series were shot three years apart and so 9 year olds Nambotin and Martin and 15 year old Pilortz were now 12 and 18 in series 2 that was set to be only 6 months after Series 1 and all three had quite noticeably grown and matured.
Whilst there is an extensive cast and a large number of stories, four standout: First is 15 year old Camille Seguret (Yara Pilartz), killed with 30 classmates in a tragic bus crash 3 years earlier. Her story and the reaction of her older sister Lana (Jenna Thiem) and parents Jerome (Frederic Pierrot) and Claire (Adele Cosigny) take center stage at times. Second, 25 year old Simon Dilatre (Pierre Perrier) returns to his fiancé Adele (Clotilde Hesme) after apparently committing suicide 10 years earlier leaving behind a daughter Chloe (Brune Martin) now 10 but Adele is now betrothed to local police Captain Thomas (Samir Guesmi). Third is a complex web between bar owner Milan (Michael Abitboule), his lover Lucy (Ana Guiradot) and brothers Toni (Gregory Gadebois) and Serge (Guillane Gouix) and involving a millennialist Christian church who all decide to end their lives 35 years earlier excepting Pierre Tissier (Jean-Francois Sivadier) then aged 17 who chickens out and now, as a middle aged man, runs a homeless shelter where he carries on the millennialist church. He emerges as a key community leader when the dam bursts at the end of series 1 killing some and leaving many homeless. All these scenarios have complex and involved plot lines with dramatic interlocking developments.
Fourth and perhaps the most compellingly eerie story and character, is the return of 8 year old Victor (Swann Nambotin), apparently murdered 35 years earlier in a home invasion and he arrives unexpectedly into the apartment of single 30 something nurse Julie Myer (Celine Sallette). With no obvious parents and initially almost mute, the two bond closely and quickly. Victor (originally Louis) emerges as a key almost Svengali-like savant child with great powers of premonition and an ability to move around somewhat without physical constraint. He gradually emerges as THE key deceased returnee as his real story gradually unfolds.
The scenery is stunning, the acting is top to bottom regardless of age of the highest quality (standouts were the youngest actors, Pilortz as Camille and a truly stunning performance from Nambotin exuding tremendous restrained power as Victor despite his diminutive size), the story lines (whilst at times a little tortuous) are magnificently told and come together in Series 2 very well, there is all the usual Gallic passion, emotion and sensuality, the mystery and tension is perfectly maintained and the background music is pitch perfect. It is an intense and ambitious project that is compelling and yet not ghoulish or gory. One minor quibble - the series were shot three years apart and so 9 year olds Nambotin and Martin and 15 year old Pilortz were now 12 and 18 in series 2 that was set to be only 6 months after Series 1 and all three had quite noticeably grown and matured.