Antoine de Caunes: The “Dreamed” Life of a Rock ’n’ Roll Kid

A CANAL+ Original Documentary – 4 × 40-minute episodes

From December 3, 2025, exclusively on CANAL+ and myCANAL

He’s 71, still slim, still armed with that razor-sharp British accent and a career that looks like a firework launched with no instructions. Antoine de Caunes never had a career plan. He just followed the noise: the sound of rock, exploding television, uncontrollable laughter and, sometimes, heavy silences.

CANAL+ is devoting a four-part documentary series to him: The “Dreamed” Life of a Rock ’n’ Roll Kid, written and directed by Bernard de Choisy and Yannick Saillet. Four Wednesday nights for four decades of a life like no other.

Broadcast schedule

• Wednesday, December 3, 2025: Episodes 1 & 2 from 9:00 PM
• Wednesday, December 10, 2025: Episodes 3 & 4 from 9:00 PM All episodes available on myCANAL from December 3.

Episode 1 – The Sounds of Counter-Culture

It all begins in Miami: Iggy Pop, bare-chested and grinning like a shark, asks Antoine point-blank if he’s “had a successful life”. The question hangs in the air for the entire series. The answer? In the end, it’s the viewer who decides. Flashback: barely 25 years old, sitting behind a drum kit at Studio Ferber in Paris, Antoine becomes the only TV gateway to an emerging culture. From Chorus to Les Enfants du rock, then Rapido… he kicked open doors nobody else dared touch. Bruce Springsteen pays tribute to “this elegant French man”, Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett (Gorillaz), Paul Simonon (The Clash), Jean-Louis Aubert and Richard Kolinka share their memories. Today’s music influencer Medhi Maïzi salutes the original influencer of the 70s and 80s.

Episode 2 – The Cathode Clown

1987: the rock kid puts on a clown suit and the whole of France falls in love. Uncontrollable “bushfire” laughing fits, cult sketches, that ridiculous accent… Nulle part ailleurs becomes the headquarters of a generation. We also discover what many have forgotten: Antoine was just as big a star in the UK as in France. Eurotrash? That was him. José Garcia, Alexandre Astier, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Monsieur Poulpe and Emma de Caunes come to throw stones at the legend and recount the outrageous stunts that would be unbroadcastable today.

Episode 3 – The Clown’s Paradox

At the absolute peak of television, he walks away to try something else: cinema. Four films directed (including Monsieur N. about Napoleon and Coluche, l’histoire d’un mec), a Best Actor César nomination in 1998… but also failures, harsh criticism and self-doubt. For the first time, he talks openly about it all. Charlotte Rampling, Roschdy Zem, Elsa Zylberstein, François-Xavier Demaison and Stephan Eicher bear witness. The man behind the mask finally appears – moving and vulnerable.

Episode 4 – Cracking the Armour…

The most intimate episode. After months of conversations, Antoine agrees to open up like never before. The shock of leaving Le Grand Journal in 2015 and its unexpected consequences, depression, the grief following the death of his parents (TV pioneers Georges de Caunes and Maryse Gildas), the hyperactivity that keeps him afloat, the dreams that still drive him. Writer Philippe Djian sums it up perfectly: “He uses entertainment to say important things without ever needing to hammer them home.” At 71, the irreverence is intact, the British humour still razor-sharp, the desire to have fun stronger than ever.

Four episodes, dozens of prestigious guests (Iggy Pop, Bruce Springsteen, Charlotte Rampling, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Damon Albarn, José Garcia…), and above all a man who finally lets us peek behind the curtain.

The “Dreamed” Life of a Rock ’n’ Roll Kid A CANAL+ Original Documentary From December 3, 2025, exclusively on CANAL+ and myCANAL.

Because, in the end, Antoine de Caunes never really grew up. He just kept dreaming louder than everyone else.

©2025 – IMPACT EUROPEAN

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