Allo la France review – romance of French phone booths exposes funding cuts to rural services

In an endearingly whimsical road trip documentary, Floriane Devigne takes calls from her interview subjects in the last remaining phone boxes dotted across rural France The humble telephone box, a souvenir from the days of analogue, can also be an intriguing cinematic locus. Floriane Devigne’s road trip documentary begins with such a relic: the last public phone booth in Paris, which also appears in Jacques Rivette’s mesmerising 1981 film Le Pont du Nord. Unlike their Instagrammable British counterparts, French phone boxes are usually painted in a demure grey and blend seamlessly with their surroundings. As it moves from the capital city to more remote areas, Devigne’s film observes the vanishing of a formerly essential utility as her cross-country odyssey sparkles with an endearing whimsicality. Instead of using talking heads, Devigne ducks into various phone boxes scattered across France, as she takes calls from her interview subjects. Stories of love and longing fill these unassum...

‘I probably shouldn’t do this again’: Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga talk about ‘difficult’ Joker diets

The stars of Joker: Folie à Deux worked under medical supervision to lose weight for physically demanding sequel, which premieres at the Venice film festival this week

Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga discussed the punishing diets each undertook for the Joker sequel, ahead of the film’s premiere at the Venice film festival.

At a press conference alongside the film’s writer-director, Todd Phillips, Phoenix talked about the pre-production regime he revisited, having lost 52lb – a little under 4 stone, or about 24kg – by eating mostly lettuce and steamed vegetables for the original.

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