Nicolas Sarkozy is not a conventionally attractive man, to say the least. Standing just 5 feet, 5 inches, with a forehead that takes up more than a third of his face, he doesn’t strike a dashing figure. Paris Match airbrushed out one of his love handles when they published a photograph of him rowing a canoe, shirtless. Yet Sarkozy has become one of the most fascinating men in the world. One might even dare to use the word “glamorous” to describe his world. He became president of France in 2007 on a conservative platform, declaring on his election, “The French have chosen to break with the ideas, habits, and behavior of the past.” He was immediately that rare creature, a single man of power — his wife left him for another man while he was running for office. It didn’t take him long to find an even prettier one: The talented and drop-dead gorgeous singer-songwriter-model Carla Bruni now graces his arm at state events.
So it’s no surprise that the man has become the first sitting president to be the subject of a biopic. Sort of. The man portrayed in French flick “The Conquest” is named Nicolas Sarkozy and has his career; his rivals include Jacques Chirac and Dominique de Villepin; his wife does leave him. But a title at the beginning of the film announces that what we are about to see is a “fiction.”
| On screen |
| ‘The Conquest’ |
| 2.5 out of 4 stars |
| Stars: Denis Podalydes, Florence Pernel, Bernard Le Coq |
| Director: Xavier Durringer |
| Rated: Not rated |
| Running time: 115 minutes |
It turns out that our First Amendment is not just a good protector of free speech and free conscience — it also allows for better movies.
With the benefit of the American Bill of Rights, European libel laws are famously tough. And so “The Conquest” promises a juicy behind-the-scenes look at the rise of this somehow seductive little man, but doesn’t quite deliver.
Don’t blame Denis Podalydes. He doesn’t look anything like Sarkozy, but he’s tried to do something more interesting than resemble him: He aims to capture his strange charm and his unlikely authority. Bernard Le Coq as Chirac and Samuel Labarthe as Villepin are more conventional, doing a fine job of imitating the famous men they’re playing. Florence Pernel is also a suitable Cecilia — except that we never feel as if we really get inside her complicated relationship with her husband.
The film opens with the newly elected president sitting alone, forlorn, wishing he could share his hard-earned triumph with the woman he loves. He cuts a sympathetic figure, though it’s a feeling soon lost as we see what he did to get there. But whether this is an honest — or authentic, which is not the same thing — portrayal of the president, we don’t know. Sarkozy’s charmed life might now be played out on television, for all to see. But that doesn’t mean anyone, even a dedicated filmmaker, actually understands it.
