Lionel Astier

Biography An actor, director, and playwright, he is best known for his roles in hit TV series such as *Kaamelott*, *Hero Corp*, *Game One*, and *Alex Hugo*. As a playwright and director, Lionnel Astier has written about ten plays and appeared in some sixty productions—including classics, modern plays, and comedies—such as *Pourquoi j’ai jeté ma grand-mère dans le Vieux-Port* at the Théâtre national de La Criée in Marseille in 2010. He has appeared in more than eighty TV movies, including *L'Attaque*, *Maigret*, *Nestor Burma*, *Mariage surprise*, *L'Instit*, *PJ*, and *Louis la Brocante*. He has also appeared in feature films, notably in *Les Lyonnais* by Olivier Marchal, *Bienvenue à bord* by Eric Lavaine, *Le Fantôme de Canterville* by Yann Samuell, and, more recently, in the various installments of *Kaamelott* directed by his son Alexandre Astier. Reading from *Colline* by Jean Giono (Grasset) A Provençal hamlet surrounded by wheat, lavender, and juniper. Father Janet has been contemplating this natural world for years; he knows its magic and the secrets that rustle on the hill. Long ago, by showing where to dig to find water, he gave the village a fountain—and life itself. But today Janet is old; lying by the hearth, he awaits death, raving. His mysterious, threatening words worry his loved ones: perhaps it’s a sign that danger looms over the village. The fountain runs dry, a little girl falls gravely ill, a fire destroys the fields... What if the old sorcerer, sensing his end was near, had decided to drag the village down with him into death?