6x why you should watch Dix Pour Cent
May I preach the Netflix gospel again? I have a new catch and I just HAVE to share it with you. Dix Pour Cent is what you need to see and here's why. The series is about an actors' agency in Paris (hence the title, as they take ten percent of the actors' fees) and is delightful viewing for a hundred reasons.
1. Paris
That's where it takes place, so everything breathes the most beautiful city in the world.
2. The French
I worked for Marie Claire for years so I know what it's like in the Parisian offices. It can be tough there and they don't know the second gear. Eventually, you find out that it turned out a bit worse than intended. They're not that angry. And barking dogs... they don't bite.
3. The actors
We may not know them all, but the joke is that in every episode there is a guest role for a well-known French actor or actress. Isabelle Adjani, Cécile de France, Juliette Binoche, and a whole bunch of actors we don't know but for whom all the French applaud wildly because they managed to snag ‘this and that’ for the role. Gerard Depardieu seems to be the only one who didn't want to, and the creators couldn't resist making a little joke about it in the script.
4. The lesbian storyline
For the often somewhat conservative French, it's extra fun that there is an outspoken lesbian (by the way, you should not say this to a lesbian) in a leading role. Andrea Martel (‘I have indeed slept with men, but found it deadly boring’) can delightfully hunt for the lady from the tax office who comes to check the administration (which of course doesn't add up at all). I'm not there yet, but there seem to be quite outspoken scenes in it.
5. The diplomatic game
In the first episode, Cécile de France's agent hears that the lead role in Quentin Tarantino's film (for which she has been training for two years) is not going to happen because she is too old. Her agent doesn't dare to tell her and avoids her in a rather comical way. Then his colleague Nicolas goes to drink tea and eat macarons with one of the film's producers. He asks how the filming is going. And oh no, of course, he understands the decision about Cécile. That's how things go. And if he can help with anything. Or if they have all the permits to film in Paris. Because building all that in a studio, gosh, that's an expensive joke, right? Nicolas continues. He knows the mayor well and also the one who handles the permissions. Then there is a little silence. The producer almost wants to take a bite of her macaron when she sees what he means. She looks at him. Does he mean what she thinks he says? Indeed, he nods. ‘No Cécile de France, no Paris.’ Delightful.
6. The chain at the office
Ariëtte's little dog that (SPOILER) walks through the office with Nicolas's boxer shorts when Nicolas has been kicked out of the house by his wife (because he didn't tell that Camille, who also works in the office and kissed their son, is their daughter). Or my favorite character Hervé, who tries to glue and save everything and who calls a famous actress behind a filing cabinet and pretends to be Pharrell so that she comes across as a snobbish actress to the casting director so that she doesn't get the role without having to say no. Are you still there? Anyway, it's intensely entertaining and French and beautiful and smart and French and Parisian and refined and I can't wait to press that red button again tonight.
And as a treat, some delicious Paris tips.
