HOTEL OF TIME. Thierry Ardisson “interviews” Dalida in the new France 3 program. But what technologies were used to “resuscitate” the singer?
[Mis à jour le 2 mai 2022 à 20h55] hotel of time pushes the boundaries of interviewing with technology. This Monday, May 2, 2022, on France 3, Thierry Ardisson “interviews” Dalida, an exercise which is indeed unlikely since the singer died 35 years ago on Tuesday. This is the whole concept ofhotel of time : bring to life thanks to several technological processes of voice cloning and digital modification of deceased stars. The interview is to be perceived as a documentary or a biography which retraces the life of the personalities interviewed thanks to a scenario which has been validated by the heirs of the celebrities in question.
For the effect to be striking, hotel of time hired actors to embody the legends interviewed. Their voices and faces were then digitally altered. Several artificial intelligence technologies from the French company Mac Guff are used in the France 3 broadcast. First, the Face Retriever, which digitally models the features of the stars on the actors, taking up the principle of the technique deep fake. Then, what is called the Talking Picture, which allows giving the floor (generally to photos, paintings or sculptures) during duplexes between the guest and other stars. Finally, Ircam amplify, using technologies from the Center Pompidou’s Music Acoustic Coordination Research Institute, has developed the Voice Cloning technique to digitally reconstruct the voices of interviewees from existing recordings.
If, of course, it is not really the singer who speaks in front of the man in black, the third channel ensures that their words are “authentic”, since the heirs of each of the personalities of the show are informed of the process and have access to the scenario. Indeed, Orlando, Dalida’s brother, validated the scenario featuring his sister’s interview: “The public will discover and understand things without voyeurism, he explains to TV Magazine. It’s as if Dalida had come back to give an interview.”
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Dalida is the subject of the first issue ofhotel of timebroadcast on France 3 on April 2, 2022. For the purposes of this reconstructed interview, an actress plays opposite Thierry Ardisson the missing singer, before her face and voice were digitally altered. Julie Chevallier is the actress who lent herself to the game. We could see her before in The Mysteries of Love, Cloclo or your random heart. According to Orlando, Dalida’s brother, Julie Chevallier has “worked on her accent a lot” and has “exactly the same hands as Dalida, very long”. A successful casting therefore, as he reveals in an interview with TV Mag before the broadcast of the first episode.
Since his ousting from C8 in 2019, we had not seen Thierry Ardisson on television. The one who is nicknamed “The man in black” returns this Monday, May 2, 2022 at the presentation ofhotel of time. It must be said that the concept of the France 3 program is an original idea on which he has been working for three years. “After interviewing everyone, I had the other world left,” he explains in the program’s press release. If the show does not however meet with success with viewers, Thierry Ardisson informed pure media that he would “stop”. “I’ll do something else. Hôtel du temps is for the glory, not for the money. It’s to leave my name in history.”
For now, only a few numbers of hotel of time are provided. After Dalida on May 2, 2022, a program will be dedicated to John Gabin. Another on Coluche is also in preparation. With Pure media, Thierry Ardisson revealed that, if the show was a success, he would like to produce three numbers per year on average, with one of them dedicated to Johnny Halliday.
hotel of time is a program presented by Thierry Ardisson. This program is broadcast on France 3 from May 2, 2022. The first issue is to be found this Monday at 9:10 p.m. For now, the release dates for the next issues, dedicated to Jean Gabin and Coloucheare not known and also depend on the success of the show.