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.”