Trailer for La Maison de la Radio.
Nicolas Philibert, the award-winning director of To Be and to Have, has turned his affectionate yet acute gaze on France's national broadcaster - a Continental combination of the BBC, ABC Radio National and America's National Public Radio. This beautifully crafted documentary, shot in Radio France's bagel-shaped home on the Seine, follows the station's dawn-to-dusk schedule.
Philibert masterfully intercuts between the numerous and delightfully quirky characters. We meet a playful news editor; a presenter learning the art of a newsflash; a charmingly dedicated producer who, with a knowing glance, gets just the performance she wants; and an archetypal archivist, gnomically peering out from tottering piles of CDs. Philibert, whose work frequently covers the complexities of institutions and their staff (e.g. Nenette, SFF 2010), portrays a dedicated and extremely likeable bunch who, like a ripe Brie, positively ooze with appealing Frenchness.