Personally, as I myself had dipped my toe in the theatre, I enjoyed this film a lot.
The given time and set-up is particular - under the Covid lock-down and a production cancelled mid-rehearsal -, but the film is not much about the story or drama but the actors, the commune of Comedie Francaise.
The general society tend to view actors with somewhat dubious eyes. Unless you become rich and famous, an actor is often perceived as bit of a clown, bit crazy, untrustworthy (because they can just 'fake' it), a Bohemian vagabond who refuses to become a responsible grown-up of the society. Regardless, an actor has to view and live life differently. To be able to capture and express the essence of truth (whether it be of the drama or the character), an actor has to remain sensitive and sometimes brutally honest even about the uglier side of human nature. Unlike philosophers, psychiatrist or doctors, who arguably have deeper and more constructed knowledge of humans in their given area, an actor has to embody what they know and feel, because an actor's job is in action and expression not in ideas, words or visions.
For that reason, it is crucial for an actor to have the fellow troop as the comrades and the theatre as their world. The fellow actors become their family and lovers and the theatre (Beyond the marbled foyer, velvet covered auditorium and the glitzy stage, the dark dusty backstage, narrow passage ways and the dingy waiting room) their world. There have been some films about what happens behind theatre productions, but I don't think any of them captured this 'world of their own' aspect as richly as 'Guermantes' does. The level of intimacy and nonchalance they treat each other, carefreely taking up every corner of the theatre as their home, the incredibly physical nature of their interaction (most people would experience it only in sexual context), all the ups and downs during a rehearsal - the struggle to learn new lines, occasional nervous break down when the task is overwhelming, the sense of freedom when one finally gets to inhabit the character... Then there are also the reality - the pressure for the next role, the director feeling bit alienated in the world dominated by actors, and the real world outside their fragile universe they can't ignore in the form of failed relationship or new romance. It's all there seemingly as a bunch of snippets, but as a whole it forms the big picture of the life in theatre.
I just don't know how the general public with no regards to or experience in the theatre would view this film. Probably just heady bunch of gibberish about self-indulgent crazy theatre people. But I can't help myself but embrace this film with an affection as an ode to the theatre people... those crazy people, who can still light up a little magic, even, as in the last scene, when their little world -theatre- locks them out and they end up on park benches.
