Finalement
Finalement () is a 2024 French comedy drama film directed by Claude Lelouch. It premiered at the 81st Venice International Film Festival on 2 September 2024 and will receive a theatrical release in France on 13 November 2024.

Premise
A lawyer, having lost his ability to tell lies, embarks on a road trip across France.

Cast
 Kad Merad as Lino Massaro
 Elsa Zylberstein as Léa, Lino's wife
 Michel Boujenah as Michel
 Sandrine Bonnaire as Sandrine
 Barbara Pravi as Barbara, Lino's daughter
  as Manon
 Marianne Denicourt
 François Morel
 
 Clémentine Célarié
 Lionel Abelanski
 Dominique Pinon
 Julie Ferrier
 Françoise Fabian as Françoise, Lino's mother
 Ibrahim Maalouf
 Victor Meutelet
 
 
 Jean Dujardin
 Marie-Hélène Lentini
 Thomas Levet

Production
Regarding the film, director Claude Lelouch stated, "Finalement is certainly a film about France, but also about the French, about family, about freedom, about solitude, about appearances, about music, about cinema." He stated that the character of Lino was inspired by "brilliant attorneys" such as Robert Badinter and Éric Dupond-Moretti.

Filming took place in Beaune and Saône-et-Loire in mid-2023. Filming also took place at the Stéphane Rolland fashion show at the Palais Garnier on 4 July 2023.

Music

Release
The film premiered at the 81st Venice International Film Festival on 2 September 2024.

Reception
Boyd van Hoeij of Screen Daily wrote, "The sheer filmmaking pleasure and mastery of Lelouch behind the camera is especially evident in the first hour or so, with [Stéphane] Mazalaigue's editing deserving a special mention for how it keeps all of the different narrative layers laid out so clearly. But the plot's necessity to build to some kind of logical finale with increasingly higher stakes causes an initially smooth-running train to increasingly splutter."

Guy Lodge of Variety called the film "cluttered, often baffling" and wrote, "[Claude Lelouch] falls some way short of his glory days in this muddled, sentimental tale of a lawyer grappling with mortality and truth, but his devotees will find much to chew on."

Jan Lumholdt of Cineuropa called the film "a mixture of 'greatest hits' put in a bag of old tricks, shaken and stirred".

Alberto Crespi of La Repubblica gave the film four out of five stars, writing, "...[T]his new film, despite some slowness in the finale, is a delight. And above all it is a surprising film."

Movieplayer.it gave the film three out of five stars, calling it a "half-successful film" and writing, "...Lelouch's film manages to demonstrate the lability of human existence; a performance recited without scripts, but improvising, just like a jazz concert. Between constant leaps between reality and imagination, the film ultimately borders on an unsustainable paroxysm, which disorients and slows down the process of identification of a confused and not always happy audience."

References

External links
 

Category:2020s road comedy-drama films
Category:2020s French films
Category:2020s French-language films
Category:2024 films
Category:Films about lawyers
Category:Films about lying
Category:Films directed by Claude Lelouch
Category:Films set in France
Category:Films set in Normandy
Category:Films set in Paris
Category:Films set in Pays de la Loire
Category:Films shot in Côte-d'Or
Category:Films shot in France
Category:Films shot in Paris
Category:Films shot in Saône-et-Loire
Category:France 2 Cinéma films
Category:French comedy-drama films
Category:French-language comedy-drama films
Category:French musical comedy-drama films
Category:French road comedy-drama films