Class Act

I recommend it, excellent biographical mini-series of an ambitious dreamer who didn't know when to stop.

Leader, Genius, Cheat, Courageous, Visionary...

Full of irreverent performances, it transports us to France in the 1970s and immerses us in the symbolism of its history.

I was surprised by the quality of the plot and the performances, Laurent Lafitte was very well accompanied by the sublime Joséphine Japy.

Throughout the series It felt like I was on a ferris wheel in constant motion. The story was very well told and detailed to shed light on a personality who obstinately marked his time.

Tapie.

I belong to those people who admired Bernard Tapie, and believe me, there were millions of them. He was charismatic, unique, the only human being who was a singer, businessman, politician, big and small screen and stage actor, convict, major soccer game team owner - Olympic de Marseille. He was selfish, yes; ruthless, yes; ambitious, yes; charismatic, yes; big big big mouth, yes; liar, yes; fearless, yes; schemer, yes. But no one human being could stay without opinion concerning him.... NO ONE ON EARTH. This series is excellent, however it is at the edge of the caricature, the cartoonesque way of describing him thru his way of talking, behaving, puzzled me a bit. Some awesome sequences, especially in the last episode, with the face to face conversation between Bernard Tapie and attorney Montgolfier. I reviewed it on the seventh episode. They should have mentioned his famous sentence about Diego Maradona, the worldwide known soccer player. Tapie said " That's not someone like him that I want, THAT'S HIM !!!! I remind this sentence, back in the nineties, on TV. But they did not.

I like very much the main actor performance ..he was so natural, so charismatic, so Bernard Tapie and his act make the series so real ..in the other hand .. I like the way the biography was presented ..it was like reading a book .. I didn't know Bernard Tapie before watching the series it make me more curious now about him .. I like also the choice from where they begin the story telling and also the End .. I like the fact that they did'nt make him look like hero or a legend but a human being with his mistakes, ambitions, glories and his "sortir de l'ordinaire" character ..he was a legend just by being himself ..

I had some reservations about "Tapie" before i started to binge-watch. But I must say, that it has surprised me so far (3 episodes to go). A nice built up of the story, cinematography is okay, and the acting is good. Based on my own youth as a teenager in the 80s, I had heard of Bernard Tapie. So, I knew about his liasons to sport. Not so much about his involvement in politics - that's why I enjoyed those episodes the most. But, what I was really disappointed about, is that the series only show his succes with Olympique Marseille. But totally left out that other big universal sport he got involved in: as a sponsor / financer of the La Vie Claire cycling team. The iconic Mondriaan colors of red, yellow, blue, black and white squares and world famous cyclists as French own Bernard Hinault and Greg Lemond as the "poster-boys". 1985,1986 Bernard Tapie's La Vie Claire won the Tour de France - the biggest cycling competition in the World. These were iconic years in Sport. And not a single reference of it: why? A big miss!

On a much lower scale, the ascension of Bernard Tapie and his aplomb reminded me of Trump... He was a media darling, a businessman that ended up laying off thousands of workers even though he promised he wouldn't... The only differences lie in the fact that Bernard Tapie was a real self made man who could not count on his father's money and that he got burned for flying too close to the sun! He also got married twice only! :-) Anyways, I really enjoyed this series and even though it was largely fictional, many scandals rang a bell to me as I grew up in France in the 80s-90s. It was really entertaining and I definitely recommend this series to anyone that would like to learn more about a man that is still revered as the Boss in Marseilles and who is still worshipped by many in France as the son of a factory worker who became a billionaire, a minister of the government, a tv host, a singer, an actor, a business owner who owned Adidas and changed its logo and the owner of one of the biggest French football club!