A review of the important new French film “De Gaulle: Liberté”
The second part of this bio-pic of General Charles de Gaulle is just as accomplished and successful as the first part “De Gaulle: Résistance”. This is hardly surprising since the two sections were shot at the same time with the same cast and crew. Again a two-year period is covered, this time 1943-1944, and again the running time is 159 minutes. The style is the same: fast-paced and dramatic with excellent cinematography and sound. Again the narrative alternates between battles between armies and conflicts between individuals with a large cast of characters to observe and a great deal of information to absorb.
The military sequences are mainly the Battle of Tunisia (February-March 1943) and the insurrection in Paris (August 1944) with a leading role for the brave and resourceful French commander Leclerc (Niels Schneider). The central political conflict is between de Gaulle (Simon Abkaria) and Churchill (Simon Russell Beale) but, in this second portion, there is more bitter antagonism between de Gaulle and American President Roosevelt (Campbell Scott) and between de Gaulle and old-style French General Giraud (Thierry Lhermitte), not to mention deep divisions in the French resistance led by Jean Moulin (Félix Kysyl).
For the French, these films present a fair narrative of the complicated French position during the Second World War. For a British audience, there is a reminder that we did not win the war alone and there is an explanation of why de Gaulle hated the Americans, why he distrusted the British, and why twice he said “Non!” to UK application for membership of what we now call the European Union.