DE GAULLE : Tuesday 25th May 2021.

'DE GAULLE' which I saw earlier this week at my local independent movie theatre, is an M Rated French biographical historical drama film Written and Directed by Gabriel Le Bomin whose previous feature film making credits take in 'Fragments of Antonin' in 2006, 'Beyond Suspicion' in 2010, and 'Our Patriots' in 2017 as well as a number of short films, TV movies and television series documentaries. This film was released in its native France back in early February 2020, and only since early May has it been on a limited release in Australia, having so far generated mixed or average Reviews, and collected US$7.5M at the global Box Office, off the back of a US$12.5M production budget.

The film opens up in early May 1940 as Charles de Gaulle (Lambert Wilson) and his wife Yvonne (Isabelle Carre) wake up from their slumber as the sun beats down through the curtains of their bedroom somewhere in rural France. After breakfast with their three children Anne, Philippe and Elisabeth (Clemence Hittin, Felix Back and Lucie Rouxel respectively), Charles is being helped by Yvonne into his military attire before leaving for Montcornet where following two days of fierce fighting de Gaulle's tanks forced the German infantry to retreat to Caumont, the action bringing only temporary relief and doing little to slow the spearhead of the German advance. Nevertheless, it was one of the few successes the French enjoyed while suffering defeats elsewhere across the country. This small victory buoyed de Gaulle, and in recognition for his efforts he was promoted to the rank of Brigadier-General on 23rd May 1940 by the French Prime Minister Paul Reynaud (Olivier Gourmet).

On 5th June, Prime Minister Reynaud appointed de Gaulle a government minister, as Under-Secretary of State for National Defence and War, with particular responsibility for coordination with the British. Four days later de Gaulle flew to London to meet with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (Tim Hudson) for the first time. At that initial meeting de Gaulle suggests to Churchill that the British and French armed forces should join up to stand against the Germans on a united front. Meanwhile, Marshal Philippe Petain (Philippe Laudenbach) the Deputy Prime Minister was strongly opposed to de Gaulle's suggestions to keep fighting on, as was General Maxime Weygand (Alain Lenglet), instead coming to the conclusion that France had already lost the war to the might of the German war machine and they should accept their fate and seek an armistice with Hitler, before Paris is overwhelmed and destroyed. 

After another couple of meetings with Churchill and his Cabinet over the ensuing couple of weeks in which there is much toing and froing of the joint forces notion, on 16th June de Gaulle was in a meeting at 10, Downing Street when Churchill agrees to an Anglo/French political union. Meanwhile, Paul Reynaud resigned as Prime Minister after the French/British Union had been rejected by his Cabinet and Petain had been instated as the new Prime Minister with the remit to seek an armistice with Nazi Germany, so effectively bringing to an end de Gaulle's ministerialship. 

De Gaulle visited Reynaud, who still had control of secret government funds until the handover of power the next day. On the morning of 17th June, he flew to London on a British aircraft with 100,000 gold francs in secret funds provided to him by Reynaud. De Gaulle landed at an airport west of London just after 12:30 on 17th June. He met with Churchill at around 15:00 and Churchill offered him four minutes of broadcast time over the BBC airwaves. They both knew about Petain's broadcast earlier that day in which he said that 'the fighting must end' and that he had approached the Germans for terms. 

The next day, 18th June, the British Cabinet were reluctant to agree to de Gaulle giving a radio address, as Britain was still in communication with the Petain government about the fate of the French fleet. The Minister of Information had an advance copy of the text of the address, to which there were no objections. De Gaulle's Appeal speech of 18th  June exhorted the French people not to be demoralised and to continue to resist the occupation of France. Thereafter, he declared that he would broadcast again the next day. After the armistice was signed on 21st June 1940, de Gaulle spoke later the following evening on 22nd June to denounce it. The newly formed French government declared him compulsorily retired from the French Army (with the rank of Colonel) on 23rd June, and ordered him to return home to France immediately to stand trial for treason. 

While all of this was going on, Yvonne and her three children were busying themselves trying to evade the onslaught of the German forces across France. They travel from small village to village seeking safe refuge and eventually evacuate to the northern French coast where they manage to board an overloaded Dutch ferry boat that was the last one to leave and which eventually takes them to Falmouth and hence on to London, where after some six weeks apart (aside from the odd fleeting visit in between time) the family are reunited with Charles. Anne, their youngest daughter was born with Down Syndrome and she died in her parents arms at the age of twenty in 1948. After this Yvonne set up a charity, 'La fondation Anne-de-Gaulle', to help children with disabilities. 

Lambert Wilson plays a very credible de Gaulle here, as both the war mongering never say die French Freedom Fighter and as the caring loyal family man to his wife and three children. However, it is the governmental and military posturing that is the main stay of this real life story, the back and forth between de Gaulle and Churchill creates a real sense of urgency and provides an insight into the relationship that developed between the two men over those two weeks or so in June 1940. The flight of de Gaulle's family through France on the other hand is a let down and feels second rate to the main story here, adding little by way of emotional heft that the viewer can invest in. The supporting cast here all give more than reasonable performances, and the production values on display here more than adequately take you back to 1940's war torn France and Britain, but for me the story was somewhat disjointed and laboured the back and forth a little too much particularly during the second act. 

'De Gaulle' merits two claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-