Antonin Baudry’s De Gaulle: Résistance is an ambitious, richly detailed historical epic that approaches the late General Charles de Gaulle’s wartime years with the seriousness and scale they demand. As the first part of a two-film story, the film is less interested in rushing from one famous event to another than in immersing the audience in the political and military complexities of the French Resistance.
The result is a film that can occasionally feel heavy under the weight of its historical detail, but is ultimately an absorbing, carefully constructed portrait of a man attempting to keep the idea of a free France alive while fighting against those who initially had very little confidence in his vision.
Clocking in at over 158 minutes, the film’s length could easily have been its biggest liability; instead, it becomes its greatest asset. Baudry gives the story room to breathe, allowing the screenplay to explore de Gaulle (Simon Abkarian) as he takes up residence in London, his prickly, often theatrical rapport with Winston Churchill (Simon Russell Beale), the formation of Free France and the competing personalities within the Resistance. There is an extraordinary amount of information packed into the screenplay, and audiences unfamiliar with the period may occasionally find themselves struggling to keep track of names, organisations and political manoeuvring. Yet that density also gives the film a sense of authenticity.
Running alongside de Gaulle’s story is a second, quieter thread following Fernand Bonnier de la Chapelle (Florian Lesieur), a young anti-Vichy activist whose path will eventually intersect with the General’s in ways the film only gradually reveals. De Gaulle’s own private life, meanwhile, is kept almost entirely off-screen; his wife and daughter appear only fleetingly once they join him in London, and the film shows little interest in him as anything other than a public figure. That’s a deliberate choice, consistent with a film more concerned with history than domesticity, but it does mean the vulnerable side of de Gaulle comes through more in his political setbacks than in any personal ones.
Simon Abkarian gives de Gaulle a stiff-backed, slightly Haughty demeanour without turning him into a simplistic heroic figure. He lets moments of solitude, frustration and doubt surface beneath the imposing exterior, even as the film keeps him at something of a remove. Simon Russell Beale delivers a brilliant turn as Churchill, he is exasperated, affectionate and occasionally incandescent towards his French guest, whom he grows to be very fond of.
Elsewhere, Niels Schneider, Benoît Magimel and the rest of the large ensemble ensure that the Resistance feels like a collection of competing personalities rather than merely supporting players surrounding its central figure. The sheer size of the cast is impressive, although the number of historical figures introduced can sometimes make the film feel closer to a meticulously researched historical chronicle than a conventional character drama.
Where De Gaulle: Résistance truly comes alive, is in its depiction of war. The extended section devoted to the Battle of Bir Hakeim is particularly impressive, combining large-scale action with a strong sense of the human cost of military resistance. The use of practical effects alongside CGI gives these sequences a convincing physicality, while Baudry’s direction ensures that the spectacle never completely overwhelms the historical context.
This is an accomplished and fascinating piece of historical filmmaking. Baudry directs with confidence and restraint, balancing intimate character moments with scenes of genuine epic scale, while the screenplay demonstrates a clear respect for the complexity of its subject. Rather than simply celebrating de Gaulle as a national icon, the film attempts to understand the man, the political battles around him and the extraordinary circumstances that shaped his leadership. The result is a weighty, well-performed and often spectacular first chapter that should appeal particularly strongly to viewers with an interest in wartime history.
