(AFP) – Love stories of all kinds, this is the material of “Modern Love”, a weekly section of the New York Times that has become a cult and now an Amazon series, a collection of romantic pastille against today’s television.
“She dumped me”: “She dumped me”. This was the title of the first column of “Modern Love”, in October 2004. Since then, nearly 800 stories, centered on two creatures who don’t always have a relationship, followed it in the Sunday edition in New York. Times.
The launch of a podcast in 2016 further increased the popularity of these short stories, written by living historians, to the point that Daniel Jones, who directs this section, says he has received between of 8,000 and 9,000 essays per year. , for 52 last published.
Today, “Modern Love” has become a series, for the Amazon Prime platform, a new example of diversity in the New York Times, following the successful podcast “The Daily” and its counterpart in television, “The Weekly”.
Apparently, romanticism was honored in Amazon’s “Modern Love” version, both in the selection of eight stories adapted to episodes posted online from Friday, and in the selection of Irish director John Carney, strong reference to “feel good movie” (“Sing Street”).
“Some + Modern Love + are very black and they don’t want to take on the darker ones”, explains Daniel Jones.
Despite the complexity of some topics, such as bipolar disorder, the death of a spouse, the adoption of a homosexual couple, a ray of sunshine crossed these eight vignettes in almost half an hour.
All filmed in an idyllic New York, with spacious apartments, numerous public gardens, restaurants and intimate cafes, where many leading actors change, from Anne Hathaway to Tina Fey, by Dev Patel or Catherine Keener.
– “Refresh” –
Since the advent of the golden age of series, American cable channels and even more streaming platforms have given their series a somewhat black and sarcastic overall tone, which is undoubtedly up-to-date.
Even comedies, like “Fleabag”, “Veep” or “The Office” are destructive, and thus stand out from the canons of traditional, smoother television in history.
“Modern Love” seems determined to take the opposite course, even if it means confusing.
“Many of us, I first, tend to defend ourselves, because now we receive a lot of things that shock us by their unpleasant side”, shown during a round table the actress Anne Hathaway, playing a young bipolar woman in one episode.
“It’s nice to have a place where you don’t have to protect yourself,” he added, while presenting the series as “a nice little anthology, not the recipe for saving humanity”.
“I hope that when people watch, they’ll do it with an open heart, because it won’t hurt,” said Cristin Milioti, who plays a woman who was harassed by her concierge.
“Sometimes people approach things by asking themselves: is it deep enough?”, Said Gary Carr, who gave the answer to Anne Hathaway. “But sometimes you need to escape, something invigorating.”
“Romanticism is a ridiculous thing,” says Anne Hathaway, “because some are allergic to it while others find it good and accept it for what it is.”
However, “Modern Love” stays true to its time with its distribution open to diversity and its ability to address, albeit slowly, some major societal issues.
“I’m a gay black man and I feel like I’ve seen the same kind of stories forever,” argued Brandon Kyle Goodman, whose episode provoked a homosexual couple who wanted to adopt the child of a homeless- that woman. “This series and this episode is exciting because it’s a different vision.”