France is a 2021 French dramedy film written and directed by Bruno Dumont.
The story follows the life of France de Meurs (Léa Seydoux), a famous French television journalist who gets caught in a spiral of events that will lead to her downfall.
The cast also includes singer Benjamin Biolay and comedian Blanche Gardin as, respectively, France's husband and assistant.
For the country, see here.
This film provides examples of the following tropes:
- Affectionate Nickname: Lou calls France "cocotte" ("darling") without romantic intent at one point.
- Alphabet News Network: The fictional television channel France works for has a "i" as symbol.
- The Atoner: Out of guilt after accidentally running into the scooter of Baptiste (the food deliveryman) and because she's a Slave to PR, France keeps contact with him and his family and offers him gifts while he's recovering. Upon learning that Baptiste was also providing for his parents, she gives them a check for the money he won't earn while he's recovering, even if they politely refuse initially, and she even offers him a new scooter. She gives them €40000 in total.
- Celebrity Is Overrated: During the whole aftermath of the accident with Baptiste, France comes to resent her celebrity as she tells her first therapist, to the point of stopping her career.
- Eiffel Tower Effect: France lives and works mostly in Paris, so of course there's shots of the capital city's landmarks here and there.
- Fictional Counterpart: Considering its prominence and the way they cover news, the "i" channel is one for the real life French news channel BFM TV.
- Intrepid Reporter: France ventures in war zones on several occasions. She nearly gets shot in the second location.
- Malicious Slander: France's downfall starts the day she accidentally runs into the scooter of a food deliveryman. While she gets out of her car to check if he's ok, there's a paparazzi around who rushes in to take a picture of her, and the next morning a tabloid publishes an issue with said picture on the cover which accuses her of being a reckless driver.
- Mental Health Recovery Arc: France spends four weeks at a clinic in the Swiss Alps when she's mentally exhausted after quitting her job.
- Most Writers Are Writers: France's husband Fred (Benjamin Biolay) is only mentioned to be a writer.
- Newscaster Cameo: Real life journalists François-Xavier Ménage and Omar Ouahmane appear as themselves.
- No Communities Were Harmed:
- The first war zone in which France ventures has Tuaregs living there (indicating it's a Saharan African country) but it's not named.
- The second war zone in which France ventures is not named, but several things bring Syria to mind, chiefly the fact that the locals speak Arabic and that "the regime" (like Bashar al-Assad's) bombards its own population.
- Paparazzi: One who rushes to the scene of France's car/scooter accident to take a picture. Cue Malicious Slander from the tabloid he works for the next morning.
- Protagonist Title: "France" is the protagonist's name.
- La Résistance: In one scene, France goes to an unnamed country in Saharan Africa where local Arabic-speaking Tuareg people fight against an invasion by ISIS and interviews their leader.
- Satire: The film satirizes modern French media, the fabric of "star journalism", "news as entertainment" and the intellectual dishonesty of news-based TV channels.
- Stock Footage: Real life footage of French President Emmanuel Macron was used for the press conference scene at the beginning and was edited to answer France's question. The president himself did not participate to the filming, a fact that gets mentioned in the end credits. His dialogue was also neatly edited from other speeches to have him pronounce "France de Meurs".
- Strawman News Media: Even if she places herself in some dangerous situations such as a war zone, France cares more about her image and makes sure interviews last as little as possible so her face will be shown as much as possible and she talks with padding most of the time, and she has some small actions staged to look good in her coverage.
- Sycophantic Servant: Lou (Blanche Gardin) is France's assistant and always compliments her.
- Vulgar Humor: Lou has quite a vulgar sex-based sense of humor.
