★★★★ - THE POST
- De Gaulle concludes with an appropriately epic part two -
Have you seen De Gaulle Part One: Résistance on a big screen yet? I reckon you should.
It's a rip-roaring yarn with some terrific action sequences, woven into a pretty deft account of the maneuvering that defined the future French President's years in exile in London and North Africa.
Baudry and his editors do a wonderful job at cutting these strands into a whole. And although I'm sure there's some, err, liberties taken with the way things actually played out, Liberté holds together as a film very well.
Simon Abkarian is Charles de Gaulle in De Gaulle Part Two: Liberté, a powerful account of de Gaulle's journey during World War II, from his rise as a military leader to his emergence in French politics.
In the leads, French veteran Simon Abkarian (Casino Royale) is still a terrific de Gaulle, swinging from capricious to immovable at will and occasionally looking downright messianic when the writing demands it. Next to him, in a handful of good scenes, Simon Russell Beale (The Death of Stalin) turns in a memorable Winston Churchill. New player Niels Schneider is excellent as the dashing and impossibly handsome Leclerc. And Anamaria Vartolomei returns as Livia, the Resistance fighter.
Livia is a fictional composite of several women who fought for the Resistance in occupied Paris. But Vartolomei is so effective and inspiring in the role I'd happily follow her through the gates of hell if she asked. So I guess that counts for something.
Both de Gaulle films were adapted from UK historian Julian Jackson’s acclaimed 2018 biography De Gaulle: A Certain Idea Of France.
Back in August, reviewing the first part of De Gaulle, I wrote that Resistance was "a proper epic, done just right" - and I reckon that can equally apply to this second and concluding instalment. De Gaulle was a defining and transformative figure in 20th century European history. It seems to me that Baudry and his crew have taken on a hugely ambitious and fraught task with this brace of films, and have brought them home with a very appropriate balance of discipline and flair.
- Graeme Tuckett, THE POST
De Gaulle Part II: Liberté is now playing at Light House Cinema!