Latest news with #telephonebox
The Guardian
23-06-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Allo la France review – romance of French phone booths exposes funding cuts to rural services
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 unassuming booths, themselves once the location of secret rendezvous and romantic trysts. The interiors of these facilities are now caked with dirt and graffiti; the lovers of yore are long gone. In one of these booths, Devigne reads out graffitied slogans supporting the far-right National Rally and politician Marine Le Pen. It soon transpires that the disappearance of the phone boxes is just one symptom of a larger issue: funding cuts for public services in rural France. With state hospitals and schools closing down, local frustrations towards Macron's policies morph into worryingly divisive rhetoric. Devigne's talent for moving from a specific object to larger socio-political issues turns what could have been a nostalgia-heavy film into a clear-eyed examination of contemporary legislation and its consequences. With the past squarely in its rearview mirror, Allo la France looks towards the future, sounding an urgent warning about the disintegration of public amenities. Allo la France is on True Story from 27 June
Times
19-06-2025
- Times
Is it time to hang up on these great red relics?
I n Parliament Square this week, I had to jostle to pass a queue. Reaching the front, I saw what it was for: a red telephone box. But no one was actually making calls. Instead each tourist took their turn, leaning against Gilbert Scott's design classic while a friend snapped a picture with Big Ben in the background. This is, I suppose, why this particular telephone box remains. But it was an empty shell. It didn't even bear the once traditional central London wallpaper of escort calling cards to save its dignity. Presumably that business has gone on to mobile phones too. It had all the melancholic pointlessness of a giant panda being played sexy music by its keepers in the hope it will finally reproduce, or some new scheme to shore up Venice. Sometimes even the noblest of heritage cannot be saved. Just let them die in dignity.
