De Gaulle: Liberté

The second film of Antonin Baudry's two-part production covers Charles de Gaulle's years between 1940 and 1945. The first part opened a month earlier; this one follows a general who has crossed to London with almost no power at all as he tries to gather the French resistance around himself. His real struggle is not against Germany but against his own allies: negotiations with Churchill, Roosevelt's refusal to take him seriously and the divisions among resistance groups inside France are at the centre. The film presents history not as victory but as a continuous work of persuasion. It draws on Julian Jackson's biography and runs two hours and forty minutes. Simon Abkarian plays the part without monumentalising it. Who it's for: viewers who like political history and Second World War narrative. Who it's not for: anyone who has not seen the first part; this film is built directly on it.