France

simpore

France de Meurs (Léa Seydoux) is a famous TV news host and she's a celebrity. She skillfully stages her warzone interviews and always puts herself in the middle. She juggles her busy professional life with her family life. She's at fault in a minor car accident and she starts spiraling. The movie meanders along too long. It's not only the over two hours running time. The story keeps going and going. When the accident happens, I figured the story would pivot around that. I even thought that the family would scam her and make it an even bigger media circus. It seems to be making Baptiste as the brooding teenager ready to make her life miserable. Then those characters fade away. The affair at the retreat is an extra thing that extends the story. At some point, I want the movie to end. It overstays its welcome and I get antsy in the seat. I do like her staging of her interviews. Her accident could be poetic justice if the accident was staged. That's why it's a better central issue.

Avoid at any cost! Absolute waste of time! I'm big fan of french movies, but this one is unbearable. This thing could continue endlessly and I have no words to describe the efforts to stand till the end. Bad story, bad music, bad, director work, bad movie. This "movie" is a complete waste of time, so do yourself a favor and skip it. You will thank me later for saving 2h 13m of your life.

Bruno Dumont writes his own original scripts and directs the film. His best best work among those that I have watched so far was "L'humanite" (Humanity) (1999) that swept three top Cannes awards: Best Actor, Best Actress, and The Grand prize of the Jury. Mr Dumont has made an equally good film in "France," a top-notch tale on the downfall of a major TV news personality whose name is France. It is far superior to the Hollywood film, Sidney Lumet's "Network," also on another major TV news anchor. As the poster suggests, the main character looks back at her fascinating career and the incidents and people that led to her gradual erosion of faith in humanity as fate and people contribute to the downward spiral of her life. The last 15 minutes of the film nudges us to recall Dumont's earlier film "Humanity" with similar shots of the agricultural landscape as in that film. The film is significant for a few extraordinary elements; 1. The well constructed script. 2. The superlative performance of Lea Seydoux ending with her looking at the camera and closing her eyes as a tear drop flows out from the closed eyelid. 3. The lovely music of of the composer Christophe, used by Tarantino in "Kill Bill vol. II." 4. The remarkable performance of Benjamin Biolay, as the husband, Fred.

"Such faux-naivety shows Dumont's tricksy proclivity to go against the grain for characterization, he distances France from a realistic, complex character, then magnifies her every banal emotion beat from her easily processed headspace to the extreme of absurdity. France has no tact in fending off life's caprices, her guilt (after injuring an immigrant delivery man), her rage (a romance with a fellow resident in an expensive sanitarium turning out to be a hoax), her grief (a road tragedy shot in disturbingly long and slo-mo details), never reach far to get audience's sympathy. France de Meurs might be read as a symbol of France the country, all glossy and haute-couture-y, but troubled by the immigrant crisis, deluded by the deceptive wooing parties and dreading disaster can be detonated at any minute and much more." read my full review on my blog: Cinema Omnivore, thanks.

I really wanted to stop watching it 10min after the beginning, so annoying it was. The rating more than 5 is too high for the movie, I gave it only 3. The question is - why not 2?))

No plot, attempts at a storyline. Completely all over the place. What a waste of hours! Neither the main plot nor the plot adds up to anything. Love affair seems cringy. Husband-wife and even the filial relationship seems so fake. One story moves onto another with no relation in between as if this were the attempt of a photographer to bring together a scrapbook of images. And to be honest, even the images are not that great. So, don't waste your time.

I have seen some bad films - but this is near the bottom of the barrel. Was the camerman/director/producer in love with our main actress - she is constantly in view and in closeup throughout this prolonged two-hour film. Its superficial. Its phony. The purported outdoor war scenes are laughable. It has unending scenes of angst from our main actress. None of the characters are likeable. A complete waste of time.

Bruno Dumont is a true representative of the original French cinema, with staring face shots, melancholy, loose phrases in the air with a tremendous bucolic air of philosophy. The film "France" is a typical example of that, Drumont chooses to go to the philosophical side when discussing the stardom aspects of those who make TV news, how the news is manipulated, and also the influence of the media in our life. The entire movie is cold as ice.

And what is important here is the show: the star journalist has to engage and retain the viewer or the reader, to make an audience, probably mainly to attract the advertising budgets. Taken in the first degree, the film can obviously greatly displease but taken in the second degree it is remarkable.