A review of an important new French film “De Gaulle: Résistance”
General Charles de Gaulle was the most famous and consequential military and political French figure of modern times and it is appropriate that a bio-pic of his activities in the Second World War should be the most expensive production in French cinematic history. The film was directed by Antonin Baudry, co-written with Bérénice Vila, and based on the 900-page, non-fiction book “A Certain Idea Of France: The Life Of Charles de Gaulle” by the distinguished British academic Julian Jackson.
In fact, “Résistance” is only the first part of a double bill and covers the period from the German invasion of France in 1940 to the acceptance of the Free French as a credible force in 1942. Almost all the speaking roles represent real-life characters, most notably French-Armenian Simon Abkarian as de Gaulle and the English Simon Russell Beale as British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
The French have a complicated history of the war period and much of the story in this film will be unfamiliar to many in today’s France. Indeed the film was a slow-burner which only gradually won ever-larger audiences, largely through word of mouth. Most people in Britain know even less about de Gaulle’s role in the war and this film will tell them a good deal, not just about the French but also the British at this crucial time in world history. Sadly, however, the work has had a very limited release in British cinemas and you’ll have to catch it where you can. The second part of the story is called “De Gaulle: Liberté”.