Dir. Robert Guediguian, France, 2005, 116 mins
Cast: Michel Bouquet, Jalil Lespert
The Last Mitterand is based on journalist Georges-Marc Benamou's book "Memoires Interrompus", which was a chronicle of his relationship with the late French President François Mitterand and the exclusive interviews he conducted with him from 1992 to 1995 in the last years of his presidency, shortly before his death in 1996. It could therefore have been a film purely of conversation and ideas, in the mould of films like Louis Malle's My Dinner with André. But director Robert Guediguian (Marius et Jeannette, A L'Attaque! etc) has freely adapted the source material into a satisfying feature film. This is particularly true of the character of journalist, named Antoine Moreau in the movie and played by Jalil Lespert. Antoine might easily have been a mere sounding board responding to the title character, but Guediguian has given him a full life of his own, which informs his relationship with the president - an estranged wife, a putative new girl friend and a disenchanted communist father-in-law (it was with the backing of the French communist party that Mitterand became president in 1981 of the first left wing government in France for 23 years.) Antoine also has a burning thirst to find the answers to the many political and moral mysteries and contradictions surrounding Mitterand, a thirst shared by Guediguian, himself a committed socialist.
Embodying those contradictions is veteran actor Michel Bouquet (Poulet au Vinaigre, Toto le Heros) in a masterly, many faceted performance. We see him first as a rather genial old cove, highly cultured, literate and with a wicked sense of humour, taking his protégé Antoine on a helicopter trip to Chartres cathedral and reminiscing about his relationship with De Gaulle. But although still fulfilling his presidential duties, we soon realise that Mitterand is becoming an increasingly frail old man, well into his seventies and suffering from prostate cancer. There is one particularly touching scene, where he is too weak to get out of his bath and is forced to ask Antoine to help him. But he is still the shrewd and inscrutable leader, who was known for good reason as "the Fox" or "the Sphinx", which is particularly evident when Antoine tries to get to the heart of one of those Mitterand mysteries. As an official of the Vichy government during the Second World War, was he an anti-Semite and collaborator, which he denies, or a loyal member of the French Resistance, as he claims? It's a question to which "the Fox" will never give a straight answer. For him this relationship is about understanding his life for himself, as he faces his impending death. Interestingly, Mitterand's colourful love life - he had several mistresses and fathered an illegitimate daughter by one of them - is only referred to obliquely, when the president learns about Antoine's broken marriage and mischievously advises him to go for a girl from Northern France next time and to favour actresses rather than models!
The Last Mitterand is an intelligent and challenging film, which is both a personal story and a political one. It requires attention and some knowledge of late twentieth century history from its audience, but it well rewards the effort and is worth seeing for Bouquet's performance alone.
Carol Allen
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