François | Cesare #30: "Rachel, I know who you are. We can do anything, we can get away with anything. I love you." – Tommy Castelli
 

Cesare Borgia was born in Rome on September 13th, 1475; the son of Cardinal Rodrigo de Lanzol y Borgia, soon to become Pope Alexander VI, and his mistress Vanozza dei Cattanei. He was made Bishop of Pamplona at the age of 15. Following school in Perugia and Pisa where Cesare studied law, along with his father's elevation to Pope, Cesare was made Cardinal three years later. After his brother Juan's death, Cesare became the first person in history to resign the cardinalate. On the same day the French King Louis XII named Cesare Duke of Valentinois, and this title, along with his former position as Cardinal of Valencia, explains the nickname "Valentino". Cesare's military career was founded upon his father's ability to distribute patronage, along with his alliance with France (reinforced by his marriage with Charlotte d'Albret, sister of John III of Navarre), in the course of the Italian Wars. At the time of his father's death in 1503, Cesare's dominons in the Romagna disintegrated without continued Papal support. In order to smooth the way to his election as pope, Giuliano Della Rovere - later Pope Julius II - made an agreement with Cesare, promising to make him captain of the papal troops again. After the conclave, Cesare surrendered the Castel Sant' Angelo and came to live with Della Rovere in the Vatican. The pope toyed with the idea of using Cesare to stem the Venetians in the Romagna, for he could still attract loyalty not only from the Spanish but also, to some degree, from the people of the province. However, the Venetians claimed that all they were doing was taking the lands of their common enemy, Cesare Boriga. Hence, Julius II asked Cesare for the countersigns of the fortresses that he held (Cesena, Bertinoro and Forlì). In return Cesare received a brief saying that he could go where he liked once the cities had been surrendered. He went to Naples and begun to try to recruit troops but when the Spanish monarchs heard of this they ordered their viceroy Gonsalvo to arrest Cesare. Exiled to Spain in 1504, he was imprisoned in the Castle of La Mota, Medina del Campo, from which he escaped and joined his brother-in-law King John III of Navarre. Subsequently, Cesare was killed in 1507 while fighting for the Navarrese king in the city of Viana, Spain.

In "The Prince", Machiavelli uses Cesare Borgia as an example to elucidate the dangers of acquiring a principality by virtue of another. Cesare also inspired many novels and was portrayed in many movies and television series based on the Borgia's rise and fall. For instance most recently:


François Arnaud (born 5 July 1985 in Québéc, Canada) is a French Canadian stage and film actor who trained at the Conservatoire d'Art Dramatique de Montréal in 2007. He is best known for his performances as "Cesare Borgia" in Showtime's TV series The Borgias and as "Antonin" in the critically acclaimed French Canadian movie J'ai tué ma mère. In 2009, he had a part in Sophie Lorain's Les Grandes Chaleurs. In Québéc, François is known for his role as "Théo" in the TV series Yamaska. In 2015, he had a guest part in the Canadian WWII drama X Company and later that year starred opposite Jaime Alexander on Blindspot. In 2017, François took on the role of Manfred in the supernatural drama Midnight, Texas. In 2018, François played the character of Tommy Castelli, a TV producer and love interest to Shiri Appleby's character Rachel Goldberg on the Lifetime drama UnREAL.

tftnt, Nina! :hug:

Thanks for closing the old thread, Arinna. :hug: Much appreciated!

Thank you for the new thread and title, Nina! :hug:

Not at all! My pleasure, Alex. :)

And we're gonna be doing Midnight, Texas watches here too, just so you know. :nod:

We've been watching Daredevil, but Joanne isn't on the show yet. I'm guessing we'll have to wait until season 3.

You could do an UnREAL season 4 watch.

I'll have to ask Arinna about that. She hasn't expressed interest in that.

Well, it's new and François is in it. I'm surprised the fans here haven't discussed his part. Or maybe they are just casual fans. Nothing wrong with that.

https://78.media.tumblr.com/d1138f47...txvuo1_500.jpg
https://78.media.tumblr.com/8db07012...uo2_r1_500.jpg
Source: https://bigkuzdra.tumblr.com/

Yeah, I don't remember Suzanne mentioning it, but she hasn't been here in a while.

I think Linda had mentioned it before.


Thanks for the pics, Nina! :)

The first season was really good, also not too many episodes. It'd probably be good to watch s1 because a lot of things were picked up in s4 that started in s1. The two seasons inbetween were... idk. S2 was a bit over the top but it's probably important to watch otherwise you don't understand Rachel's downward spiral and her relationship with men and thus later Tommy, François'a character. S3 toned it down and is maybe not so important to watch but you might as well. At least the last episode. It's a riot all in all.

Well, I'll have to ask Arinna. :) That show is over, right? I figured because Francois is now doing Midnight, Texas.

Yeah the show has ended. It had nothing to do with Midnight, I don't think. He was cast in UnREAL while it wasn't sure whether or not Midnight, Texas was going to be renewed for season 2 or not.

I know it doesn't have anything to do with Midnight, Nina. :) I just wasn't sure if there was a scheduling conflict for Francois between both shows, but I guess not.

No there wasn't at any point. That had been made clear from the beginning.