Comédie-Française

Nina is directing for the first time at the Comédie-Française. Rehearsals begin and everything goes wrong: the set is late, technical faults appear, some of the actors dislike the text, egos collide and the opening date comes closer. Nina is both the director and the most junior person inside the institution; she has to make everyone listen. The institution has one firm rule: the play is not cancelled. Whatever happens, the curtain will go up. Bertrand Usclat and Martin Darondeau direct. Pauline Clément plays Nina; Laurent Stocker, Julien Frison and Marina Hands are in the cast. It is a French production. Pauline Clément is among the writers of the screenplay; she is an actor of the Comédie-Française and the narrative is built from an inside view. The film won four awards at the Alpe d'Huez festival. It opened in France on 22 July 2026. The matter it works at is the tension between institution and individual; the Comédie-Française is a place heavy with its own history and the film makes that comic material. The humour is built through character; the theatre world's own conventions are both shown and criticised. Its limit is scope; many of the references to the institution may stay closed to a viewer from outside. Who it is for: viewers who like comedy set in the theatre and French satire of institutions. Who it is not for: the references are local, the pace fast, and there are many characters.