De Gaulle: Résistance

In a world where fascism looms threateningly and ever present Antonin Baudry’s epic-sized drama about France’s exiled wartime leader Charles de Gaulle and later President, knows precisely how to deliver a timely interrogation about the precise nature of patriotism.

There is more than enough to engage the intellect and the emotional senses as Baudry marshals his “troops,” notably with the key performances of Simon Abkarian, displaying a darkly sardonic edge and ramrod physique as De Gaulle, and Simon Russell Beale as a gruff and cantankerous Winston Churchill. It’s a relationship that embodies mutual respect and affection despite a few fierce altercations along the way.

But it’s not just these two wartime heavy-weights who hold centre stage. Baudry, who made the tense submarine thriller The Wolf’s Call, and previously was an author and diplomat, counterpoints their scenes with an equally riveting narration of the part played by the youthful real-life anti-Vichy resistance fighter Fernand Bonnier de La Chapelle (Florian Lesieur). Admiral François Darlan (Mathieu Kassovitz), was a key figure in Marshal Petain’s French government under Nazi rule. Bonnier de La Chapelle was executed by a firing squad when he was just 20.

Drawing on British historian Julian Jackson’s 2018 biography A Certain Idea Of France, De Gaulle is portrayed as a man who manages to construct a mandate for himself as a leader in exile in London and who exhibits an unwavering self-belief and sense of patriotism despite France’s capitulation to the Nazis.

His wife and daughter, who has Down’s syndrome, are only briefly glimpsed as they join him in London. Baudry has too many other strands to follow rather than becoming too occupied by the personal.

There are lively performances from the likes of Karim Leklou as a fictional Polish plumber who becomes De Gaulle’s aide-de-camp. Benoît Magimel and Niels Schneider also acquit themselves well in a vast recreation of the heroic 1942 Battle of Bir Hakeim in the North African desert when the French manage to hold out bravely against the encroaching hordes of the better equipped invaders. Magimel plays the determined general Koening, who valiantly held the enemy at bay for as long as he could.

Baudry excels in the well-orchestrated battle sequences and the huge protesting crowds surrounding the Arc de Triomphe in Paris – the scale of the film has echoes of the imagery which David Lean has been known to muster for such spectacular occasions as Lawrence Of Arabia.

Volker Bertelmann (who composed the Oscar-nominated music for Edward Berger’s All Quiet On the Western Front) contributes a rousing score that suits the old-fashioned feel of a film that flaunts its patriotism whenever the opportunity arises.

The second part of the two-film project De Gaulle: Liberté opens in France on 3 July.

Reviewed on: 10 Jun 2026