La Bataille de Gaulle, Digi Mart USA News: Following his 2019 film Le Chant du Loup, and after a career as a diplomat, Antonin Baudry has continued his collaboration with Pathé Films on an ambitious project. The aim is to trace a portion of Charles de Gaulle’s life in the form of a blockbuster told across two feature films, offering the general public a dense biopic about one of the figures of the Second World War who devoted himself to freeing France from German occupation with its resistance forces.
The result is the large-scale production La Bataille de Gaulle, which overcame the obstacles in its path to become one of the year’s successes. Each of its two parts, L’Âge de Fer and J’Écris ton Nom, drew the curiosity of more than two million spectators.
With its release on DVD, Blu-ray and 4K UHD, more viewers are expected to discover at home this six-hour epic about the dark hours of the twentieth century.
La Bataille de Gaulle, L’Âge de Fer: Fighting for One’s Ideals. Based on De Gaulle, une certaine idée de la France, a biography written by British historian Julian Jackson in 2021, the first part focuses on a pivotal period in the general’s life: his exile in London as France collapses.
Turning away from the Vichy regime, which stood for collaboration with the enemy, he joins the resistance and attempts to organize a counteroffensive against the Nazis. This led to the creation of the Free French Forces, an armed movement determined to weaken Adolf Hitler and his troops.
Antonin Baudry, who co-wrote the script with his partner Bérénice Vila, stages the struggle on different battlefields, whether in the streets, in the desert or symbolically in the plush offices of the English capital. The chapter takes its time to unfold its story, with discussions often taking precedence over action scenes of the Resistance, whether civilian factions or armed forces.
To offset the academic tone of these long negotiation sessions, the film relies on the performance of its lead actor, Simon Abkarian, who fits the general’s costume with ease and even brings out his ironic side. This spices up the long stretches of dialogue, notably the verbal sparring between de Gaulle and Winston Churchill, which is crucial to the plot.
It is not until a final act defined by a fight for survival that L’Âge de Fer lets its rage and lyricism emerge, with a recreation of a remarkable piece of bravura: the siege of Bir Hakeim, which took place from May 27 to June 11, 1942. This sequence gives prominence to another general, Koenig, played by a solid Benoît Magimel.
It gives substance to the notion of heroism, which builds step by step through the trials endured.
La Bataille de Gaulle, J’Écris ton Nom: For the Future of France. While its first part did not avoid pitfalls, sometimes stumbling to find the right tone to win over audiences, Antonin Baudry sharpens his aim with the sequel J’Écris ton Nom, which gains thematic coherence.
This second installment, covering the period from 1943 to 1944, turns its attention to the art of disobedience, whether civil or military, while the unyielding figure of de Gaulle clashes with American imperialism (in addition to the Nazi enemy) with the arrival of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the conflict tearing Europe apart. This emphasis is relevant because the screenplay draws a parallel portrait of another man quick to do as he pleases: General Philippe Leclerc, convincingly played by Niels Schneider, who plays a crucial role here with his famous armored division, which helps liberate Paris.
With this part, the creative team reminds viewers that despite strong personalities and differing opinions, individualism somehow led to the coalition, with isolated acts serving the common good in troubled times. This is supported, among other things, by the presence of Jean Moulin, who appeared as an extra in L’Âge de Fer.
Alternating at a brisk pace between closed-door negotiations over France’s future and underground schemes to defeat the enemy, the film proves effective and avoids the trap of pure hagiography. Touching on the Wallonia project, the founding of the National Council, the Resistance, and D-Day, J’Écris ton Nom ardently reminds us that history needs great men, but above all a people ready to make every sacrifice to defend its rights and its freedom.
Hence the very good choice of giving this chapter of La Bataille de Gaulle a subtitle taken from an iconic line by Paul Éluard.
Although it sometimes wavers in its footing, particularly during the events of L’Âge de Fer, the diptych La Bataille de Gaulle remains a French-made blockbuster with real panache. Antonin Baudry ultimately finds the momentum needed to deliver a work that honors Charles de Gaulle’s self-sacrifice and also serves as an ode to courage, highlighting men and women (through the fictional character Livia, played by Anamaria Vartolomei) who hold freedom at the core of their being.
It is a celebration of the art of resistance, told from the margins of the biopic.
