France (Bruno Dumont)

Léa Seydoux’s character in France has a sumptuously enveloping baroque apartment. It is suffocating and gorgeous. The color palette is burgundy and charcoal; the walls are filled with a mixture of contemporary art and classical paintings (like Gilbert and George meets Titian).

I’m not sure how I feel about the film as a whole, but the apartment was unforgettably stunning, a real character. And John Waters liked it!— “This psychological study of a fictitious popular female newscaster may start out conventionally, but the assured director’s long pauses and cruel plot twists quickly turn a quasi attack on the media and its ravenous consumers into a searing critique of both the tedium and the emotional risk of living in the public eye.” (See link for more of his recs.)

France is streaming on Kanopy, in case you want to see it for freeeee.