La Maison De La Radio, film review: A hard film for a non-French audience to engage with

(12A) Nicolas Philibert, 99 mins

Broadcast news: Radio France’s Alain Bedouet in Nicolas Philibert’s documentary ‘La Maison de la Radio’

The French documentary maker Nicolas Philibert is justly revered for his 2002 feature Etre et Avoir, a fly-on-the-wall film set in a small rural primary school.

The radio journalists in La Maison de La Radio, about French national broadcaster Radio France, turn out to be less captivating subjects than the school kids in the earlier film.

The director shows us meetings, news bulletins being read out, dramas and musical performances being recorded, and the general office bustle behind the scenes. His admiration for Radio France's work and public-service ethos is self-evident, but this is a very hard film for a non-French audience to engage with.