De Gaulle: Résistance

Though it does leave it until the end, Antonin Baudry does put up a disclaimer acknowledging that there's a fair degree of cinematic licence been taken with this depiction of the rise of Charles de Gaulle from upstart provincial soldier to leader of the Free French during the Nazi occupation of his country. We start in 1940 with France effectively partitioned. The Vichy - under the government of Marshal Petain is in the South and it is trying keep what it can of it's territory from their invaders - at just about any price. De Gaulle (Simon Abkarian) has escaped to London and views them all as capitulators unworthy to claim any rights to the leadership of the French people, but his views have little traction at home or abroad. Meantime, British Prime Minister Churchill (Sir Simon Russell Beale) needs to stop the substantial French fleet from falling into enemy hands - but Admiral Darlan (Mathieu Kasovitz) seems unlikely to just hand it over to the British who are now the only power left in Europe resisting the Führer and his henchmen. Might de Gaulle be a weapon Churchill can employ? He's a formidable speaker after all. Well, he concludes that he hasn't actually got very much to lose so he recognises him as leader of his nation and leaves him to galvanise what he can from his sceptical compatriots amidst fury from Petain and Darlan. What now ensues illustrates how by sheer force of personality this man tried to secure the support of the colonies in Africa like Chad and Cameroon; to secure access to the port of Dakar for the Americans - who may, or may not, be considering entering the war and, of course, fighting a fairly constant rearguard action against those who would scheme to depose him - especially when things go wrong (and they do!). Simultaneously, back in Paris there is a young provacteur called Fernand (Florian Lesieur) who is trying to raise some sort of fighting spirit amongst his fellow citizens, but is facing a sea of indifference from a population that...