-
GR, GRP, PR: What do the French hiking signs mean?
What are the coloured symbols on French hiking routes? Who paints them there and why?
-
Miss France: glam - but not sexy
Miss France organiser Geneviève de Fontenay fears she is fighting a losing battle to protect her 'Cinderella dream' from vulgarity
-
Normandy Landings visit for Queen
Queen Elizabeth has confirmed a state visit to France, ending rumours she is handing over duties to Charles
Sarkozy film may be embarrassing
Film-maker shows Sarkozy’s rise to power and how his wife left him as he started first day as president
NICOLAS Sarkozy’s rise to power as president has been captured in a film to be released later this year, the first time a sitting president has been covered in a movie.
Due in the cinemas in May, La Conquête (The Conquest) covers the five years in the run-up to his election in 2007 and his split with his then wife, Cécilia.
Film-maker Xavier Durringer has gone to extreme lengths to ensure accuracy and the film may be extremely embarrassing for Mr Sarkozy.
Historian Patrick Rotman wrote the screenplay and interviewed many of the leading figures to unearth intimate details, such as Sarkozy’s search for his wife as he starts his first day in power. She had refused to vote for him.
Using the Stephen Frears film The Queen as his template, Durringer called up actor Denis Podalydès to play Sarkozy and Florence Pernel as Cécilia.
Their performances electrified an audience at the Fédération Nationale du Cinéma Français, when the first two minutes of the film were shown and hailed with a standing ovation.
The Conquest was funded by Gaumont and Canal+ after state-owned France Televisions turned down the project.
Last July Mr Sarkozy’s present wife, Carla Bruni, took a cameo role in the Woody Allen film Midnight in Paris.
Photo: Medef