La conquete (2011)

Directed by: Xavier Durringer | 105 minutes | biography | Actors: Hippolyte Girardot, Grégory Fitoussi, Denis Podalydès, Florence Pernel, Bernard Le Coq, Samuel Labarthe, Pierre Cassignard, Saïda Jawad, Michèle Moretti, Dominique Besnehard, Gérard Chaillou, Mathias Mlekuz, Michel Bompoil, Nicolas Moreau, Bruno López

It is May 6, 2007, the day of the presidential elections in France. We see Nicolas Sarkozy sitting alone in a room, watching the TV, playing with his wedding ring, switching through all the channels and hearing the predictions about the outcome. They say he will triumph. He constantly tries to get in touch by telephone with his (then) wife Cecilia, who flees from him on that very day and will abandon him shortly afterwards.

Then the story of the five preceding years unfolds, with developments constantly switching back and forth in time. We follow the power struggle between political mastodons (more dinosaurs in Sarkozy’s eyes) that has taken place.

The film ‘La conquête’ presents the viewer with almost a drama of Shakespearean proportions. Jacques Chirac is president and the question is whether he will stand for re-election or who will dare to challenge him. Some party leaders are considering running for office, but challenging Chirac is more than a venture. As president of France, the cunning fox manipulates everyone and can ‘calm down’ people, promote them and eliminate them at the same time through devious political maneuvers.

Dominique Villepin and Nicolas Sarkozy enter the fray and a political battle ignites between them where everything is allowed. Chirac is also not indifferent and plays his own divide-and-conquer game in a masterly way. Sarkozy’s strength is constantly underestimated, he has a perfect feel for the new zeitgeist and even manages to placate voters from the opposite camp with surprising statements. The power struggle turns into a full-blown war, opponents blackmail each other with false accusations (the legal processes are still ongoing). That Sarkozy won the elections is now history, but the road to it is sublimely worked out in the film story…..

Great to see is the scheming behind the scenes, the collusion of people who are not each other’s friends, but find each other under the motto ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’. It will of course come as no surprise that everyone has their own agenda. Self-interest always comes first.

Sarkozy is constantly working on his image, deals in nice-sounding one-liners that appeal to the public and knows better than anyone how to draw attention to himself with provocative statements. He mainly beats his opponents by always being one step ahead of them and proves to be a pre-eminent media manipulator. ‘Politics is a stupid profession, practiced by smart people’.

In addition to the political struggle, Sarkozy also has a marital struggle with his (then) wife Cecilia (Florence Pernel), who was also an important advisor within his team. She saw like no other his ambitions and pursuit of power and the path he mapped out. The pressure of his fame weighed heavily on her.

Although the film has politics as its subject, it has not become a political film. Don’t expect shocking revelations, ‘La conquête’ is not a social drama or a story set with political messages and agendas. The rendition by Bernard Le Coq as Chirac is especially magnificent, the resemblance is eerily strong, his mannerisms and gestures are perfect. The playing of Denis Podalydes as Sarkozy is also more than lifelike. His posture (‘France is becoming a microstate’, says Villepin cynically), mood swings, gait and hand gestures are particularly convincing.

Let yourself be taken in by the interesting look behind the scenes. See how dirty the game is played and what dirty tricks (reciprocal) are played. Enjoy how the press can also be used (and abused). For Sarkozy, everything was subordinate to achieving his goal, the presidency was obtained. His wife Cecilia couldn’t stand it any longer and drew her conclusions.

‘La Conquête’ is beautifully ironic and at times delightfully cynical. At the same time, the film is informative, light-hearted, entertaining and entertaining. A humorous ‘king’s drama’, definitely worth a visit, even if you are not interested or even loathe politics.