France (film)

France is a 2021 comedy-drama film written and directed by Bruno Dumont. It stars Léa Seydoux, Blanche Gardin, Benjamin Biolay, Emanuele Arioli, Juliane Köhler, 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 on 15 July 2021. It was released in France on 25 August 2021 by ARP Selection.

Synopsis
France de Meurs (Léa Seydoux) is the star reporter for a popular French TV news show. Thanks to her charm and hard-hitting reports from war zones, she plays the role of a hard hitting and honest reporter. However, when we see the other side of the shots on location, we realize that her concern is not only the strict journalistic truth, but also the staging of sequences that show her off to best advantage. She is constantly pushed in this direction by Lou (Blanche Gardin), her cynical assistant. She's married to Fred, an author, and has a son, Jojo, but her relationship with them is very strained, her work taking up most of her time.

One morning, while driving her son to school, France knocks down a young man on a scooter. The event was immediately exploited by social networks, and she realized how fragile her popularity was. Sincerely affected by the fate of Baptiste, whom she had sent to hospital, she went to visit him and decided to help his family, against her husband's advice. She then sinks into depression and decides to leave the news channel. She heads off to Bavaria, to a health resort in the heart of the snow-capped mountains, where she meets Charles Castro, a young man undergoing treatment. They begin an affair, and France is relieved to meet someone who doesn't know of her fame. However, she discovers that Charles is an unscrupulous journalist who has tricked her into falling in love with him for a magazine piece he is writing on her. Although the young man tells her he's really fallen in love with her, she violently rejects him.

Back in Paris, she resumes her job at the station, and endures harassment from Charles, who has become obsessed with her. She is not really cured of her depression. The sudden death of her husband and son in a car accident takes its toll on her, but strangely enough, after hitting rock bottom, she realizes that her previous problems were rather trivial, and decides to give Charles another chance, as he may be the only one left she can turn to.

Cast

 * Léa Seydoux as France de Meurs
 * Blanche Gardin as Lou
 * Benjamin Biolay as Fred de Meurs
 * Emanuele Arioli as Charles Castro
 * Juliane Köhler 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 as Himself (archive footage, uncredited)

Production
In May 2019, it was announced Léa Seydoux, Blanche Gardin and Benoît Magimel had joined the cast of the film, with Bruno Dumont directing from a screenplay he wrote. In June 2020, the film was re-titled from On a Half Clear Morning to France.

Principal photography began in October 2019.

Release
The film had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival 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.