This is a massive undertaking, a five and a quarter hour depiction of the life of Charles de Gaulle during the second world war. It is directed by Antonin Baudry, co-written with Bérénice Vila, and based on the book A Certain Idea of France: The Life of Charles De Gaulle by Julian Jackson.
It has been split into two parts with the release dates a few weeks apart.
The first instalment, De Gaulle: Résistance, covers the period from the invasion of France in 1940 until the end of 1942, with De Gaulle setting up his Free France movement and his tumultuous relationship with Winston Churchill. Despite its length, I found it zipped along at a tremendous pace, thanks to Baudry’s lean direction, with the highlight being the extraordinary bravery of the French troops in the Battle of Bir Hakeim.
I was surprised that, although his commitment to his cause was obvious, De Gaulle was depicted as such a difficult and egotistical figure. Maybe that was because Julian Jackson is English! Simon Abkarian brings a haughty determination to the lead role and Simon Russell Beale plays Churchill with great gusto. A second plot of a hot headed young French patriot, Fernand Bonnier de la Chapelle (Florian Lesieur) who passionately supports De Gaulle initially feels unnecessary, and we do spend too much time with him, but it ends up tying in nicely with the main story.
The concluding part, De Gaulle: Liberté takes up the story in 1943 and covers the rest of the war and its immediate aftermath. It is in the same format as we follow three separate story strands: De Gaulle’s continued efforts to defy the traitorous Vichy government and be recognised as the French leader, the against the odds fighting by the Free French troops in Africa and the efforts of the resistance movement in Paris.
Unexpectedly I thought this part was even better than the first. That is largely the Paris set scenes are much more compelling than the Bonnier de la Chapelle story in the first. Both Anamaria Vartolomei and Félix Kysyl are excellent as the brave resistance fighters, injecting real heart into movie.
The build up to D-Day was interesting so soon after the slightly superior Pressure covered similar ground. It shares the same composer, Volker Bertelmann, who provides a rousing score to both films. Montgomery (Pip Torrens) and Eisenhower (Daniel Betts) are portrayed much more sympathetically here, though Roosevelt (Campbell Scott) is portrayed as very duplicitous.
The only disappointments are that there is less of Russell Beale’s Churchill, though there are great performances from Niels Schneider as General Leclerc and Tom Mison as Anthony Eden to compensate, and the depiction of the great Clement Atlee as a bumptious fool is grating.
At a total running time of 317 minutes, though it does not feel anything like that, this epic is quite the achievement.
Ratings out of 10:
De Gaulle: Résistance: 8
De Gaulle: Liberté: 9