De Gaulle: Part 2 - Liberté

Bluesky

After the breathtaking imagery and pulsating narrative drive of the first film in Antonin Baudry’s epic drama about France’s wartime leader Charles de Gaulle, subtitled Résistance, it was perhaps doubtful whether the director would succeed in sustaining the momentum for part two.

Baudry, however, manages to confound expectations with a follow-on that more than rivals its predecessor with Simon Abkarian’s De Gaulle bullishly persuading President Roosevelt (Campbell Scott) to back him instead of confining France to the sidelines of history.

Simon Russell Beale’s superb incarnation of Churchill, of course, is back to cajole and support the leader of the Free French as he attempts deftly to trounce the lurking supporters of the Vichy Government and assert his authority as the natural national figurehead despite all the sceptics in the ranks. His devious ploy to first accept a joint ticket in the provisional government with Thierry Lhermitte’s General Henri Giraud and then to get rid of him in the twinkling of a raised brow is a joy to behold.

The new focus in the second film is a figure whose personality is equally on a par with De Gaulle’s Machiavellian tropes - General Leclerc (a magnetic portrayal by Niels Schneider) first earning his spurs in the African campaign - and then leading his wagtail assortment of a platoon towards the liberation of Paris.

Yet again, though, it is Abkarian’s De Gaulle who commands centre stage with his sheer physical stature, low-level cunning and downright obstinacy - in some cases delivered with a velvet glove - who had ultimate belief in the power of his own persuasion. The human side of the man is only subtly glimpsed such as the moment he absorbs the torture and death of Resistance leader Jean Moulin (a quietly effective Félix Kysyl) in Lyon at the hands of the gestapo.

Baudry, a former diplomat and ministerial adviser turned film director with The Wolf’s Call and The French Minister, stops at the D-Day landings and the liberation of France. Perhaps De Gaulle’s post-war career may be treated in a part three, especially given the success of the project not just at the French box office but also elsewhere and the backing of Disney+. It could certainly be argued that given the political division looming in France with next year’s presidential election and unrest and upheaval elsewhere in Europe that the country needs a De Gaulle figure now more than ever.

It’s all the more surprising that the denizens who select France’s Oscar contender have not selected the De Gaulle diptych to go forward. Instead, in a bizarre move, France’s submission will be Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Minotaur. The dissident Zvyagintsev lives in France with asylum status, and its supporters justify its selection by the fact that it was largely financed and produced out of France. France has not won a best foreign film Oscar since Régis Wargnier’s Indochine took the award in 1993.

De Gaulle: Résistance and De Gaulle: Part 2 - Liberté now on release in UK and Ireland

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