France
France de Meurs has plenty of moments where one would expect her to be humbled by life. One of the most striking things about “France,” however, is that I don’t know that the character is ever truly humbled. When we see her last in the film, she is going out with a man who betrayed her trust, having lost her family, and her job a couple of times. (We think, on that second part.) It’s one of the most curious choices in Bruno Dumont’s film, and I’m not sure if it works as well as he’d like it to.
If nothing else, “France” is a showcase for the beauty and talent of Léa Seydoux. She plays France, a journalist popular with the public, and almost always with her publicist (Lou, played by Blanche Gardin) in her ear. An early scene where she’s at a press conference with the French President, and gives him a tough question right out of the gate, is a curious insight into her personality. Most of the time when he’s answering the question, she’s goofing off with Lou, and talking to one of the other journalists. She knows the question will be a hit, though, and will paint her as a serious journalist. She hosts a popular news show, but when she gets into a bit of a fender bender with a motorcyclist (Jawad Zemmar), things change.
When the accident occurs, France’s life begins to spiral, and it seems as though her perspective on her life begins to change. For a moment, it feels like the film will become a story about how she becomes an integral part of the life of Baptiste, the man she hit with her car, but after time, the film forgets about him. It becomes about her issues with her job and her celebrity as people hound her as the mistakes pile up. Her home life with her husband (Benjamin Biolay) and son (Gaëtan Amiel) is not that great, either. She eventually finds herself at a wellness clinic in the mountains where she meets a man (Emanuele Arioli) with whom she has a connection with. Not all is as it seems with that, either.
Seydoux is terrific in this role- she gets to play vulnerable, flirty, sexy, confident and anxious, and she delivers all of those when she’s asked to deliver them. My issue is I’m not entirely sure what Dumont is looking to say about the character. Every time we see her on location, one can see the ways she manipulates situations for maximum audience engagement, but when she’s filming about migrants from a war-torn Middle Eastern city, she does begin to cry. Does the cynicism of her publicist being caught on-air negate that? Her concern about Baptiste’s situation feels genuine, as well; that we don’t see more of their bond as the film goes on feels like a miscalculation. Of course, a final interview France conducts might offer insights when she’s presented with the story of someone who committed a heinous act. She acts the person whom let them into their house why, even knowing their history of violence, to which she is told that the interviewee thinks people are capable of change. I feel like this is what Dumont is trying to get at, that France, ultimately, cannot see that change in people, but we don’t necessarily see it in her, and maybe we should, if the film is to leave us with something to ponder. France has been through a lot by the end; that she doesn’t really seem affected by any of it may prove her point. It also makes the rest of the film feel like a series of vignettes that ultimately leave us feeling hollow, much like it’s main character.
