Film Reviews

The Last Mitterrand

• Rating:
• Director: Robert Guediguian
• Starring: Jalil Lespert
• Details: France / 116 mins (PG).

Francois Mitterand was to France what Charles Haughey is to Ireland: a charismatic and often infuriating leader with the ability to polarise opinion due to the inconsistencies between his public utterances and his private life. Antoine (Lespert), a journalist, conducts a series of interviews with Mitterand (Bouquet) during the last few months of his final presidency, with the aim of writing a biography. What follows is an intriguing meditation on realpolitik, truth, trust and memory: "Let him come to terms with his memory," urges a friend of Mitterand when Antoine voices his frustrations at his inability to pin the wily old politician down, particularly in relation to allegations of anti-Semitism during WWII. Beginning at Chartres Cathedral and its statues of medieval French kings, the film also attempts to give a potted history of the relationship between the French and their leaders, particularly during the 20th century, with Mitterand drawing a straight line from Petain through De Gaulle to his own presidency. Bouquet is sensational as the terminally ill Mitterand attempting to set the record straight on his legacy, offering a tremendous performance of weary acceptance laced with roguish wit, touching fidelities and verbose soliloquies on his contribution to the nation's self-image. Here the personal is very much the political, and while aspects of Mitterand's more colourful personal adventures are barely touched on, or ignored entirely, Guediguian is in the business of making a film, not a documentary, about necessary illusions. In this he has succeeded handsomely.

Review by Declan Burke