Director Antonin Baudry
Starring Simon Abkarian, Simon Russell Beale, Florian Lesieur
Rated MA
Score 5/6

Charles de Gaulle rose from being a French army officer to leading the French Resistance against Nazi Germany during World War II. The formation of his government-in-exilein London, his tumultuous relationship with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, as well as the Resistance’s operations in Africa.

One of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to movie watching is splitting one story into two films, needlessly. With the release of De Gaulle: Résistance and the upcoming release of De Gaulle: Liberté, both with runtimes over 130 minutes, I understand the reasoning, and it’s not due to a director being ‘artistically precious’; yes, I’m more than willing to point a few fingers. For those of you who might be wondering, the Two-part epic was based on the non-fiction book A Certain Idea of France: The Life of Charles De Gaulle by Julian Jackson. Going into this, I knew practically nothing about the personal relationships between Allied leaders, nothing about De Gaulle, and nothing about French involvement in Africa. When it comes to biopics, you need to watch them with the smallest amount of skepticism because certain events and people can be altered for filmmaking-related reasons. Given the seriousness of the film, it was great to see that the movie had some lighthearted moments. I loved the introduction of the character Blazej. Most World War 2 movies that I can think of at the moment have never looked at the establishment of the French Resistance. The one thing that surprised me was that De Gaulle seemed to be portrayed as a man who existed under a lucky star, such as the assassination of François Darlan by Fernand Bonnier de La Chapelle. I loved Simon Russell Beale’s performance as Winston Churchill. Beale’s approach to Churchill was different from most other portrayals of Churchill that I’ve seen in recent years. I enjoyed what director Antonin Baudry did with the portrayal of the Battle of Bir Hakeim. Almost any other director would have concentrated on the violence of the situation, while Baudry focused on the courage of the soldiers.