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The Last Mitterrand (2005)

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From Time Out London

Robert Guédiguian is known for left-leaning Renoir-esque comedies and dramas set in and around the Marseille area and starring his wife and friends. So anyone familiar with ‘Marius et Jeanette’ or ‘A la Place du Coeur’ might initially feel disoriented by this lightly fictionalised account of the last days of François Mitterand, French President for over a decade, as viewed from the perspective of Moreau (Jalil Lespert), a young journalist invited – like Georges-Marc Benamou, whose book inspired the film – to work on Mitterand’s memoirs. Given Guédiguian’s evident desire to remind us again of the ethical and other advantages of socialism, any such confusion will be short-lived; likewise, prejudices that virtual two-handers dealing with French political history are boring will also probably go the way of all flesh. Nominally, the ‘story’ hinges on what Mitterand had been up to in 1942 – was he with Vichy or already with the Resistance? – but the film, which wholly ignores certain sensational and/or non-political aspects of his character and career, transcends factual investigation to provide a moving meditation on the troubling parallel relationship between Mitterand’s ailing body (when it begins, he’s already in great pain from prostrate cancer) and the body politic. It offers an elegiac tribute to a kind of morally aware socialism now too often replaced by considerations of finance and spin. As such it’s an ambivalent but deeply affecting work; the marvellous Michel Bouquet’s performance as the erudite, witty, stubborn, sometimes seemingly indomitable protagonist is as brave as it is brilliant.

Author: GA

Time Out London Issue 1823: July 27-August 03 2005

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User reviews of this film

Technoguy said...

Posted on Dec 11 2008 16:44 I was prepared to see this film as a whitewash: the facts are never quite uncovered.Was he for the Resistance or was he an anti-semite supporter of Bouquet?He strangely traversed from the right to the left in French politics,was treated as a traitor,a
chameleon,a man who would be King.We see him gazing
dewy-eyed at the recumbent memorials of previous kings and leaders, wanting to secure his own place in history.He was the longest ruling French socialist
and the last, even using the term 'socialism' in speeches prior to the oncoming tides of globalisation
and world markets dictating political forces. After
him(mirroring DeGaulle's'le Deluge') there will,he tells the young journalist,Moreau, be only accountants
and technocrats.Bouquet gives a mesmeric performance
as the wily,old schemer dropping lavish quotes from
literature and history.Moreau the left wing idealist
is presented as infatuated with his importance to
socialism(reflecting Guediquian's approach to his
subject) but also realizing the personal cost of
writing the book-he loses his partner who is disgusted by Mitterrand. He does not merely wish to be a ghostwriter so he attempts,unsuccessfully,to
confront him with slight discrepancies in the facts
and is humiliated or brushed aside at every turn. He
is charmed more by the reminiscences of a great
statesman and what to look for in women as he is looking for somebody new.He also has a slight wake up
call to the fact that his calls are being monitored
as he visits Vichy.Mitterand's secret daughter is
mentioned but his 62 affairs in his 14 years of
Presidency,his illicit appetites or surveillance of
his opponents, even his attendance at pro-fascist
rallies in his youth are never really disclosed.The
equation between his diseased and ailing body and the
French body politic is made by Guediquian,the director.His stubborness and charm win through(witness him being kissed by a young French women after he steps down and walks along a French street)
and his importance in French political life is ably
remembered through the treatment he is given in this
film. Lucky to the last to have such a director,
writer and actor as his last memorial.

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