French true crime has been on a roll lately, breaking barriers and captivating audiences with its innovative storytelling approach.

Take the miniseries 'Unsuspected' for example - it premiered at Series Mania, an unprecedented feat for a factual program. This no ordinary doc blends together the talents of filmmakers from both narrative features and investigative reporting backgrounds, resulting in a project that defies easy categorization. As France TV Distribution's Julia Schulte puts it: 'Clearly, the boundaries are becoming blurred. Is this fiction? Is this a documentary? It's hard to say - and we're getting to a powerful place where those lines are harder to draw. However, what's abundantly clear is that the series is very, very entertaining.'

'Unsuspected' follows a Parisian psychiatrist obsessed with closing the book on a string of sexual assaults and homicides left unresolved for more than four decades. With its clean lines and narrative heft, the title has blazed further trails since the Lille showcase, now that France TV will broadcast it in primetime fiction slots. But 'Unsuspected' is just one example among many pushing the true crime genre forward.

French talent has been a major driving force behind this boom; as director of the seminal 2004 miniseries 'The Staircase', Oscar-winner Jean-Xavier de Lestrade could easily call himself godfather of the genre. Of late, he's been working on scripted limited series like HBO originals 'Laetitia' and critically acclaimed 'Sambre: Anatomy of a Crime'. Whether retracing a 2011 murder case or more than three decades of sexual assaults, both use true crime as a frame for wider sociological concerns. The results have been stellar. 'Sambre: Anatomy of a Crime' broke records in primetime when it aired on France 2 last winter, scoring more than 4 million viewers per episode and earning an average market share of 19%. The limited series drew another 3 million views online and nearly 6 million VOD plays.

Other filmmakers have found success reopening the same case in two different iterations. Production outfits La Dame de Cœur and Effervescence first explored a 1970s murder with the 2022 crime doc 'The Agnes Leroux Affair: Confidences of a Convict', before bringing out the glitz and polish for the scripted version, 'French Roulette - A Mother's Ordeal'. Set in Nice, the latter series was scooped up by Paramount+, marking it as the first French original when the platform launched in Gaul. As Julia Schulte notes, powerful imagery associated with France can lend these titles a lot more cachet while helping them stand out in international markets: 'There's a lot of powerful imagery associated with France. As we've clearly seen with the Olympics, Paris remains quite magical for the whole world, even in English-speaking markets. We're able to export that too.'

So what does this all mean? French true crime is at an exciting crossroads, breaking down barriers and captivating audiences worldwide with its innovative

Unraveling Mysteries: The French True Crime Renaissance

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