France

Name: France
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Released: December 10, 2021
Duration: 133 min
Rating: 57
Cast: Benjamin Biolay, Blanche Gardin, Emanuele Arioli, Gaëtan Amiel, Jawad Zemmar

2021

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Mixed or average reviews based on 21 Critic Reviews

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France (US Trailer 1)

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Movie Details & Credits

ARP Sélection | Release Date: December 10, 2021 | Not Rated

Starring: Benjamin Biolay, Blanche Gardin, Emanuele Arioli, Gaëtan Amiel, Jawad Zemmar, Juliane Köhler, Léa Seydoux, Lucile Roche, Marc Bettinelli, Marco Bettini, Noura Benbahlouli

Summary: France de Meurs (Léa Seydoux) is a seemingly unflappable superstar TV journalist whose career, homelife, and psychological stability are shaken after she carelessly drives into a young delivery man on a busy Paris street. This accident triggers a series of self-reckonings, as well as a strange romance that proves impossible to shake.

Director: Bruno Dumont

Genre(s): Drama, Comedy

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 133 min

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Critic Reviews

Tara Brady

Jan 2, 2023

We’re accustomed to Dumont leapfrogging from one genre to another, but he has seldom attempted so many swerves and shifts as he manages here. Read full review

The Film Stage David Katz

Jul 20, 2021

Though France holds water as a black comedy and faintly realistic character study, hitting plausible yet predictable satirical targets, what makes it a good, characteristic Dumont film is its sense of experimentation. Read full review

Natalia Keogan

Dec 10, 2021

Whatever it’s trying to say, France rewards those who are willing to take the journey without a promise of clear resolution. Read full review

The Guardian Peter Bradshaw

Dec 29, 2022

Whatever its flaws, this movie provides fans of French star Léa Seydoux with a treat. Read full review

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky

Dec 8, 2021

Dumont does not make conventionally satisfying films, and, for all of his visual minimalism, he loves a mess. But he is more than capable of making movies that are engaging on a level beyond the purely intellectual. France, for the most part, isn’t one of them. Read full review

Chuck Bowen

Sep 11, 2021

France indecisively utilizes a news personality’s crocodile tears as a symbol of the bad faith that pervades news discourse. Read full review

Boyd van Hoeij

Jul 16, 2021

Perhaps it is precisely Dumont’s point that satire and the real world have been converging for a long time, but this alone is not enough insight to sustain a movie that’s over two hours long and contains a protagonist few will warm to. for such a high-powered auteur/leading-lady collaboration, France feels decidedly unspectacular. Read full review

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User Reviews

Bellinzona

Jan 16, 2022

Great movie, I don't know why it has so low ratings. And Lea Seydoux is stunning.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Mauro_Lanari

Dec 17, 2021

(Mauro Lanari)
Dumont introduces us to a protagonist with persistent mood swings that would be caused by the accumulation of her personal, professional and road accidents. In reality, his direction full of incomprehensible slownesses or ellipses is more bipolar than the life of France de(Mauro Lanari)
Dumont introduces us to a protagonist with persistent mood swings that would be caused by the accumulation of her personal, professional and road accidents. In reality, his direction full of incomprehensible slownesses or ellipses is more bipolar than the life of France de Meurs (pun for "France of Costums": "meurs" reads the same as "mœurs" which, exactly as for the Latin "mores", designates the common social habits or practices of a people or a nation), and of the velleitarian dramedy on the media and political Western system reduced to debordian infotainment there isn't much of both genres.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Brent_Marchant

Apr 4, 2022

If ever there were a film that embodies the notion of "Life sucks and then you die," this would be it. Writer-director Bruno Dumont's latest, a depressing cynical comedy-drama, takes the concept of weltschmerz to an entirely new level. That includes not only the content of the film'sIf ever there were a film that embodies the notion of "Life sucks and then you die," this would be it. Writer-director Bruno Dumont's latest, a depressing cynical comedy-drama, takes the concept of weltschmerz to an entirely new level. That includes not only the content of the film's narrative, but also the agony that's inflicted upon audiences viewing this tediously slow, meandering, unfocused slog. Told from the perspective of an immensely popular French TV journalist who has everything that everyone supposedly wants -- fame, fortune, wealth, beauty -- the film follows her triumphs and tragedies, all of which leave her feeling eminently empty and depressed. Some of it is personal, some professional, and nearly always in matters of integrity, meaning and fulfillment, conditions that leave life affording us precious few joys. In some ways, the film could also be seen as a metaphor for the current state of society, most notably that of France (the nation) as reflected through the experiences of France de Meurs (the protagonist). The foregoing may be all well and good in theory, but it's sorely lacking where the execution of this production is concerned. Dumont truly seems to be striving for something here, but it ends up feeling more like "reaching" in the end. This overlong, often-vague, frequently repetitive, generally lost cinematic exercise truly is one well worth skipping.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

JLuis_001

Jan 12, 2022

So here we have the story of a TV star who is rich, famous and unhappy. An ode to originality.

Sure, it's not so simple after all, but it's also far from the intellectual fable its director clearly believes he's telling. It's difficult to see this film for what it is; a critique of theSo here we have the story of a TV star who is rich, famous and unhappy. An ode to originality.

Sure, it's not so simple after all, but it's also far from the intellectual fable its director clearly believes he's telling.

It's difficult to see this film for what it is; a critique of the French media, when it focuses all its attention on a character as vain, empty and inconsequential as the one played by Léa Seydoux.
This I mention is not a reflection of her performance, simply of what her character is.

She's just as empty and shallow as the world in which she moves, so when the story takes a turn and her character instead of giving the news becomes the news, due to a small accident in which she's involved. The script is unable to genuinely address what that implies and therefore expressing the emotional risk of living in the public eye lacks any real resonance.

And more than anything else the film is incredibly monotonous. It has all the same tone throughout, and with the character and her surroundings being so hollow, the odyssey becomes tiresome and trivial.
Mostly because France isn't saying anything we don't already know about the facade and manipulation of television media, and evidently isn't providing a distinctive approach to it either.… Expand

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