Virulent criticism of the media, star journalists and information-show, the feature film France arrives in Quebec preceded by a scent of controversy.
His presentation to the media, at the last Cannes Film Festival where he was selected in the official competition, made an impression. Some critics shouted genius, others ripped their shirts off. A few weeks later, Bruno Dumont (My Loute, Little Quinquin) has given a layer by apostrophant France Télévisions, public network that does not have the odor of sanctity.
In the film, his words pass through France de Meurs (a brilliant choice of name), a character who looks down on everyone, as the film poster suggests. Embodied by Léa Seydoux, this journalist-presenter is manipulative, ambitious, disembodied. The fate of the people she interviews does not concern her at all.
However, she is visibly adored by the public hanging around her neck… or maybe not. Because the more the scenes involving France and her fans add up, the more we notice that the latter have no more interest for her than she has for them.
All they care about is snatching a selfie, autograph. Nobody asks her how she is, a mark of good citizenship yet very simple. These fans are the sounding board for his lack of humanism.
In his immediate entourage, things are not much better. Communication with her husband Frédéric (Benjamin Biolay) as with his friends is minimal. The paparazzi trap her. Her only friend is her assistant Lou (Blanche Gardin).
The staging of this story adopts a very particular tone, deliberately rigid. The ambiance here is worthy of a funeral home. Both discomfort and discomfort are constant. And this, even if everything is (so) overplayed, magnified and caricature. And this, from the first scene, built from archive images where we see President Emmanuel Macron.
This emphasis of mimicry and excess adrenaline is sorely lacking in naturalness, so that none of the main characters has managed to convince us.
It remains that France, unlike his central character, does not strike a pose. The film and its artisans jostle, question, question, give blows and expect to receive them. This is the hallmark of debate, a democratic act on the latest news.
Indoors.
Consult the film schedule
Satirical comedy
France
Bruno Dumont
With Léa Seydoux, Blanche Gardin and Benjamin Biolay
2 h 14