The film which saddens the critics (Under the Seine) but visibly delights the public rises to the heights of the latest rankings recently published by the platform.
28.7 million views££££
Thus, for its second week of release (June 10 to 16), the French film by Xavier Gens remains first in the French Top 10. Normal of course, but it also remains first in the global Top 10 Netflix films in foreign languages. With 28.7 million views, it brings together more spectators than all the other nine films in this ranking combined.
It also has more views than the first three ranked in the World Top 10 English-language films, combined. . Finally, while it is only in its second week of release, Sous la Seine enters directly into fifth position in the Top 10 foreign language films of all time, which ranks all the most viewed works on Netflix based on audiences over their first 91 days of broadcast.
Battle in fresh water££££
The only downside to this unprecedented game is a lawsuit for “parasitism†(close to plagiarism and unfair competition) brought in particular against Netflix by the screenwriter Vincent Dietschy (Jean Vigo Short Film Prize 2012 for La vie parisienne). The hearing was held at the Paris judicial court on June 14. This screenwriter and director, passionate about fishing since childhood, would have, like so many others, toured the industry and producers to pitch his very personal film project around a catfish (a giant and voracious freshwater fish that fishermen know well), transformed by genetic mutations and a human eater, which appears in the waters of Paris in the middle of a sporting event. Project that he was unable to get financed.
Producers Edouard Duprey and Sébastien Auscher, as well as Laurent Grégoire, head of the Adéquat agency, are also affected by the procedure. As journalist Lara Clerc reports in Libération: “The complainant allegedly met the agent during the Alpe d'Huez festival in 2015 and sent him a version of his Silure project, while the two producers allegedly had the idea of Sous la Seine during this same festival. Verdict expected on July 3.