Caméra Café

Caméra Café is a French-born concept of comedy television series exported around the world. Two movie spin-offs have been made in France under the titles of Espace détente and Le Séminaire. It was originally a French television show created by Bruno Solo, Yvan Le Bolloc'h, and Alain Kappauf and it was broadcast from September 2001 to December 2004 on the M6 channel.

Caméra Café
Logo of Caméra Café, French version.
Created byBruno Solo
Yvan Le Bolloc'h
Alain Kappauf
StarringBruno Solo
Yvan Le Bolloc'h
Country of originFrance
Original languageFrench
No. of episodes700 (list of episodes)
Production
ProducerJean-Yves Robin
Camera setupSingle camera
Running time7 minutes
Release
Original networkM6
Original releaseSeptember 2001 (2001-09) –
December 2004 (2004-12)

700 episodes of 3 minutes each have been produced and were broadcast again on M6 in 2004. The show revolves around a dysfunctional office. Its originality stems from the fact that, within the fiction, the camera is fixed into the automated coffee machine of the office space.

The title is a French pun on "Caméra Cachée", (literally "hidden camera", or Candid Camera for the related TV show).

Plot

The main originality of the series is the coffee machine, located in the relaxation area of the company, which becomes the point of view of the viewer during each episode. In front of it, parade the employees of the company "Geugène Electro Stim" (G.E.S.) all are caricatured to the grotesque humor, even cynical at times.

This place of choice allows the viewer to live from within the everyday atmosphere of the head office of a large company in the French (such as the presence of a driver for the president, a director of human resources and 'a full-time psychologist), with professional or private discussions that often turn into caricatures.

Some extras pass from time to time down the hall and sometimes serve as spectators in some skits at strategic moments.

Cast

Main
  • Bruno Solo as Hervé Dumont, Purchasing director and Union representative
  • Yvan Le Bolloc'h as Jean-Claude Convenant, Commercial

Secondary
  • Armelle as Maéva Capucin, Head of archives and inventory and Carole's assistant
  • Alexandre Pesle as Sylvain Müller, Accountant
  • Jeanne Savary as Jeanne Bignon, Secretary and Jean-Guy's assistant
  • Gérard Chaillou as Jean-Guy Lecointre, Chief human resources officer
  • Valérie Decobert as Frédérique Castelli, Nancy's secretary
  • Alain Bouzigues as Philippe Gatin, Network administrator
  • Shirley Bousquet as Nancy Langeais, Chief financial officer
  • Sylvie Loeillet as Carole Dussier-Belmont, Chief commercial officer
  • Philippe Cura as André Markowicz, Chauffeur
  • Noémie Elbaz as Julie Hassan, Switchboard operator
  • Karim Adda as Vincent Schneider, Postal service employee
  • Marc Andréoni as Serge Touati, Company psychologist
  • Chantal Neuwirth as Annie Lepoutre, Trainee
  • Tom Novembre as Stanislas Priziwielsky, Digix's accountant
  • Sophie Renoir as Eva Kovalsky, Carole 's substitute during her illness
  • Lucien Jean-Baptiste as Franck Marchand

Guest

Adaptations

Caméra Café has seen great export success, having been adapted in:

The length of an episode varies on the locale. In Quebec, where the shorter format is less prevalent than in France, episodes are 30 minutes long, commercials included (inversely, the Quebec show Un gars, une fille, originally half an hour long, was reduced to 9 minutes in its French version). Italy kept the 7 minute format and Spain chose a four- to six-minute format.[2]

Episodes
Main article: List of Caméra Café episodes

See also

General

Similar works

References
  1. Are local viewers ready for ‘Camera Café’? Archived 2011-09-30 at the Wayback Machine, Philippine Daily Inquirer, March 2, 2007
  2. "Movie links for Caméra café (2001)" on the Internet Movie Database, retrieved on September 10, 2006
  3. "Dans le monde", on the official French Caméra Café website, retrieved on September 10, 2006
  4. "SBT official site"
  5. In Quebec, for example, a typical episode pulls approximately 1,061,000 viewers in a population of seven and a half million people, according to Le Soleil.
  6. "Qui formera le nouveau duo de Caméra café ?" Archived 2006-05-09 at the Wayback Machine by Richard Therrien, Le Soleil, November 3, 2005, retrieved September 9, 2006
  7. Official website of the Réunion version on the Internet Archive, retrieved from the February 28, 2005 archive
  8. Caracol TV, Cámara Café llega para alegrar nuestras noches Archived 2012-07-07 at archive.today, 13 November 2008, retrieved 15 November 2008
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