In a vast circular building on the banks of the Seine sits Radio France, home to seven different networks covering hard news and the arts, and broadcasting quiz shows and “this song’s for my aunt’s birthday” shows.
If that sounds like a bewildering mishmash, to an American it is, and the fact that Nicolas Philibert’s camera concentrates mainly on the faces of those who work at Radio France, without identifying any of them by name or precise occupation, adds to the confusion.
Fortunately, Philibert films all this with a sense of humor, even (or maybe especially) when you have no idea what the employees are discussing. “Who won, the horse or the cyclist?” one apparent news editor asks on the phone; this moves improbably into a conversation about millions of dead sardines in California. And the profound two-second silence at a meeting after someone asks “What do we do with Justin Bieber?” is priceless.
It’s a film for Francophiles of the deepest dye, a grand tour of French culture and preoccupations. The most lasting impression is, appropriately, not visual but aural: dozens of voices speaking a language in which even a shipping forecast sounds like poetry.
In French, with English subtitles. Running time: 99 minutes. Not rated (profanity). At the Film Forum, Houston and Varick streets.