2024 – Sleepless Night, Season 2

Saved thanks to Prime Video and Series Plus, the series Sleepless night reborn from its ashes with a sulphurous perfume with notes of black humor.

At the end of the first season of Sleepless night, we learned that Loulou Hébert (France Castel) had been murdered by Clémence (Lisette Guertin). However, the latter claimed that the perpetrator was Aidrian (Ron Lea), who had always been in love with Loulou. By going to Clémence’s house, the children Hébert, Marlène (Marilyse Bourke), Charlotte (Valérie Blais) and Lucas (Jean-Philippe Perras), discovered that their mother’s eternal rival had shot himself in the head. In voice-over, Loulou suggested that Clémence had one or more accomplices.

Launched in September 2021 on ICI Télé, Sleepless night, a series set in the luxurious world of perfumes and cosmetics, told in two eras, was canceled due to viewing figures (850,000 spectators, that was still not bad…), schedule and budget. After planning to reject her “ppp,” or “police thriller,” to use her phrase, for three seasons, author Julie Hivon left several questions unanswered in the twelfth and final episode of the first season.

Thanks to an agreement between Pixcom, Séries Plus and Prime Video, not to mention a petition signed by tens of thousands of loyal spectators, Sleepless night comes back to life.

At the request of Prime Video, which is proud to offer Quebec audiences its first French-language fiction, this time the series will be available in eight episodes. “There is a payoff in season 2, a real ending,” promises producer Charles Lafortune.

From the first two episodes, which were presented to the press on Wednesday morning, it is clear that the plot is tighter, the dialogues sharper and the production more muscular. “Since season 1, I knew what my knocks were, everyone’s secrets,” Julie Hivon reveals during a press conference at the Cinémathèque québécoise. “By changing the format I had to get there faster. So I let go of some things because I had to purge to keep the things that were important to me. »

In the second season, directed by Julien Hurteau, who takes over from Sébastien Gagné, Marlène, flanked by her husband Christophe (Jean-Moïse Martin), Charlotte (Brigitte Lafleur replacing Valérie Blais) and Lucas, notice that Clémence did not commit suicide is. So who killed Clémence? What secrets will she take to the grave? What is the motive for the crime? The tension will be greater than ever between Loulou’s three children, and we will enjoy watching them descend into crime, lies and betrayal.

“When I was offered Sleepless night“I found it intimidating,” says Julien Hurteau. I was greatly reassured by the fact that we had retained director of photography Simon Villeneuve, with whom I had worked on the film. Warnings ; so I knew we would be in familiar territory. »

It is clear that Julie Hivon had fun revealing little by little the sulphurous past of Loulou (Rose-Marie Perrault), whom we follow from 1981 to 1988, and her tense relationship with her neighbor Jacinthe (Kim Despatis), creator of the perfume Nuit blanche. . Embodied in the past by Thomas Boonen and in the present by Jean-Nicolas Verreault, the photographer Marco, son of Jacinthe, will become increasingly important.

We will thus discover the relationship he had in his youth with Clémence (Élodie Grenier, unrecognizable under the impressive make-up of Stéphane Tessier). In the same way, we will follow him, in the company of Loulou (France Castel) whom he presses with questions, in series shot in black and white – with all due respect to a certain columnist of The press !

“I knew it was going to be black and white Dune and I was filming in the summer where Oppenheimer is off ; so you couldn’t tell me it wasn’t fashionable or out of date, says Julien Hurteau. I liked it and because we were setting up different eras we had to keep them at bay. On the second reading of the script, together with the director of photography, we realized that we had to be honest. It also made something more poetic and classic possible for France Castel. »

Because his mother died under tragic circumstances, Marco, like the friendly Aidrian (in the past Nico Racicot), will be included on the long list of suspects in this weeding unit tinged with astonishing black humor, where alcohol flows freely. Just like in the good old days soaps evening at Dallas And Dynasty.

“The characters are under a lot of pressure, especially Marlène… Alcohol is something that I put in the text and we played with it in the production. For me it’s a fun show. I had fun with the eras, planning things that would come up later and playing with the spectators,” concludes Julie Hivon.

The eight episodes of season 2 of Sleepless night are available on Prime video. The 12 episodes of season 1 are available on Prime Video and on ICI Tou.tv Extra. The series will be broadcast on Series Plus from August 28.