''France'' is a 2021

comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

film written and directed by

Bruno Dumont Bruno Dumont (; born 14 March 1958) is a French film director and screenwriter. To date, he has directed ten feature films, all of which border somewhere between realistic drama and the avant-garde. His films have won several awards at the Canne ...

. It stars

Léa Seydoux Léa Hélène Seydoux-Fornier de Clausonne (; born 1 July 1985) is a French actor. Known for her roles in both French cinema and in Hollywood she's received various accolades including the Cannes Film Festival's Trophée Chopard in 2009 as well ...

Blanche Gardin Blanche Gardin (; born 3 April 1977) is a French actress, comedian and writer. Gardin holds a Master of Sociology degree from the Paris Nanterre University Paris Nanterre University (French: ''Université Paris Nanterre''), formerly Paris-X ...

Benjamin Biolay Benjamin Biolay (; born 20 January 1973) is a French singer, musician, songwriter, record producer and actor. He is the brother of singer Coralie Clément—whose first three albums he wrote and produced—and the ex-husband of Chiara Mastroiann ...

, Emanuele Arioli,

Juliane Köhler Juliane Köhler (born 6 August 1965) is a German theatre, television and film actress. She was born in Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (polit ...

, Gaëtan Amiel, Jewad Zemmar and Marc Bettinelli. The film follows the life of a star television journalist caught in a spiral of events that will lead to her downfall. Between drama and comedy, ''France'' seeks to compare the intimate and public crisis of a young woman with a portrait of contemporary France. The film had its world premiere at the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...

on 15 July 2021. It was released in France on 25 August 2021 by ARP Selection.

Synopsis

The film is intended in particular to be a satire of the treatment of information by television channels. France de Meurs is a star journalist at a private French television station. Her fame, her way of conceiving reports and programmes, as well as a chain of personal events, will cause a total questioning of her career in media and turn her life upside down, in addition to her struggles with

panic attacks Panic attacks are sudden periods of intense fear and discomfort that may include palpitations, sweating, chest pain or chest discomfort, shortness of breath, trembling, dizziness, numbness, confusion, or a feeling of impending doom or of losing ...

and

anxiety Anxiety is an emotion which is characterized by an unpleasant state of inner turmoil and includes feelings of dread over anticipated events. Anxiety is different than fear in that the former is defined as the anticipation of a future threat wh ...

Cast

as France de Meurs *

as Lou *

as Fred de Meurs * Emanuele Arioli as Charles Castro *

as Mme Arpel * Gaëtan Amiel as Joseph de Meurs * Jewad Zemmar as Baptiste * Marc Bettinelli as Lolo * Lucile Roche as Chouchou * Noura Benbahlouli as Baptiste's mother * Abdellah Chahouat as Baptiste's father *

Emmanuel Macron Emmanuel Macron (; born 21 December 1977) is a French politician who has served as President of France since 2017. ''Ex officio'', he is also one of the two Co-Princes of Andorra. Prior to his presidency, Macron served as Minister of Econ ...

as Himself (archive footage, uncredited)

Production

In May 2019, it was announced

and

Benoît Magimel Benoît Magimel (; born 11 May 1974) is a French actor. He was 14 when he appeared in his first film, and has starred in a variety of roles in French cinema. At age 16, Magimel left school to pursue acting as a career. In 2001, he won the Best Ac ...

had joined the cast of the film, with

directing from a screenplay he wrote. In June 2020, the film was re-titled from ''On a Half Clear Morning'' to ''France''.

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...

began in October 2019.

Release

The film had its world premiere at the

on 15 July 2021. It was released in France on 25 August 2021 by ARP Selection.

Critical reception

In France, the film averages 3.3/5 on AlloCiné from 36 press reviews.

References

External links

* {{Bruno Dumont 2021 films 2021 comedy-drama films 2020s French-language films Belgian comedy-drama films Films about journalists Films about road accidents and incidents Films about television Films about war correspondents Films directed by Bruno Dumont Films postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic Films set in Africa Films set in France Films set in Paris Films set in the Alps Films shot in Apulia Films shot in Bavaria Films shot in France Films shot in Paris French comedy-drama films French-language Belgian films German comedy-drama films Italian comedy-drama films 2020s French films Tragicomedy films