Tag: Anamaria Vartolomei

De Gaulle
Part 2
Liberté
(La Bataille de Gaulle
J’écris ton Nom)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date September 18 2026
No Comments on De Gaulle
Part 2
Liberté
(La Bataille de Gaulle
J’écris ton Nom)

De Gaulle: Part 2 – Liberté

(La Bataille de Gaulle: J’écris ton Nom)

Director – Antonin Baudry – 2025 – France – Cert. 15 – 160m

*****

Second part of a two-part movie continues the story of De Gaulle up to and including the Liberation of Paris in 1944 – out in UK cinemas on out in UK cinemas on Friday, September 18th

Somewhat surprisingly, the second part of Baudry’s epic doesn’t begin where its predecessor left off, but instead jumps forward to 1943. with exiled French General De Gaulle (Simon Abkarian) in London both sticking to his guns and an increasingly isolated figure on the international stage. Polish plumber turned assistant Blazej (Karim Leklou) carries on offering him encouragement.

Still, De Gaulle continues to inspire the Free French forces in North Africa, with General LeClerc (Nils Schneider) taking on a German tank division at Ksar Ghilane with only infantry and the odd anti-tank gun. Impossible odds, but as with the first part’s Bir Hakeim siege story, the Free French’s selfless actions, vowing never to surrender and fight ‘til the last man, help the Allied war effort a great deal.

In Lyon, France and separated from her boyfriend, Livia (Anamaria Vartolomei) works for the Resistance, who face a major political challenge: to unite the various different groups that want to stand against the Vichy government and the Nazis, but don’t necessarily share the same aims in terms of any post-war settlement.… Read the rest

Tags 1940s, 1943, 1944, Allied, Allies, Anamaria Vartolomei, anti-tank gun, Antonin Baudry, barricade, battle, British, Campbell Scott, Churchill, D-Day, D-Day landings, De Gaulle: Liberté, desert, desert warfare, everywoman character, exiled, faction, forces, France, Free French, French Resistance, fuel shortages, General LeClerc, Germany, Gestapo, health condition, history, Impossible odds, infantry, insurgent, Karim Leklou, Ksar Ghilane, Liberation of Paris 1944, London, Lyon, modern history, Nazis, never surrender, Nils Schneide, North Africa, paralysis, PM, Polish, President Roosevelt, prime minister, radio operator, resistance, Simon Abkarian, Simon Russell-Beale, statesman, tank division, The National Council of the Resistance, two-parter, united front, Vichy, war, war movie, weather

Features Live Action Movies

De Gaulle
Résistance
(La Bataille de Gaulle
L’Âge de Fer)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date August 28 2026
No Comments on De Gaulle
Résistance
(La Bataille de Gaulle
L’Âge de Fer)

De Gaulle: Resistance (La Bataille de Gaulle: L’Âge de Fer)

Director – Antonin Baudry – 2025 – France – Cert. 15 – 160m
*****
Feeling betrayed by France signing an armistice with the Germans in 1940, General De Gaulle leaves for London to set up and command alternative Free French forces – first part of a two-part movie is out in UK cinemas on Friday, August 28th

1940. In the brief but decisive Fall of France, De Gaulle (Simon Abkariam) – later described by a detractor as a “petty general” – overtakes a French tank column to see for himself what the Germans are doing (after an aide bringing news admits he’s not actually seen it for himself). With his military car under tank fire, De Gaulle uses his arm to signal his driver when and how to change direction so that he can accurately assess the situation before the French tanks turn up and destroy the German tank.

Days later, he is horrified to see Marshall Pétain (Alain Libolt) sign an armistice with Germany. As far as De Gaulle is concerned, Pétain and Admiral Darlan (Matthieu Kassovitz), who supports Pétain, do not speak for France. De Gaulle with the one aide prepared to accompany him leaves for London hoping to enlist the support of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (Simon Russell-Beale) who gives him a nightly broadcasting slot on BBC radio and a house in Hampstead.… Read the rest

Tags 1940, 1940s, activist, Admiral Darlan, Africa, against the odds, aide, Alain Libolt, Algiers, Allies, Anamaria Vartolomei, answer the phone, anti-Semitism, Antonin Baudry, armed forces, armistice, battle, battle scene, BBC, Benoît Magimel, betrayal, Bir Hakeim, bombing raid, branding, British Prime Minister, broadcast, Cameroon, Campbell Scott, Churchill, command, Congo, cross the border, Darlan, De Gaulle, De Gaulle: Résistance, desert battle, diplomacy, driver, embassy, emblem, enlist, Fall of France, fathers and sons, fellow countrymen, fire on fellow countrymen, fix the taps, Florian Lesieur, forbidden, forces, Free French, French Colonial, General De Gaulle, General Kœnig, Germany, government, guardian, Hampstead, history, idealism, Jew, jungle, Karim Leklou, logo, London, losses, madcap plan, Marshall Pétain, Matthieu Kassovitz, military, modern history, naval rout, Navy, Nazi, negotiation, North Africa, Paris, Paris protest, Pétain, plumber, President, President Roosevelt, prime minister, principle, protest, radio, railway station, refusal to fire on fellow countrymen, Roosevelt, sailors, Second World War, siege, Siege of Bir Hakeim, Simon Abkariam, Simon Russell-Beale, skirmish, Southbound train, statesman, suicide mission, tank, tank column, uncle and aunt, uncles and nephews, under fire, US President, Vichy France, war, war movie, wild card, Winston Churchill, World War II, World War Two, WW2, youth

Features Live Action Movies

The Count of Monte Cristo
(Le Comte de Monte-Cristo)
(2024)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date August 28 2024
No Comments on The Count of Monte Cristo
(Le Comte de Monte-Cristo)
(2024)

Directors – Alexandre de La Patellière, Matthieu Delaporte – 2024 – France – Cert. 12a – 173m

*****

An innocent Frenchman framed and imprisoned as a Napoleonic partisan escapes to impose justice on his false accusers – new Dumas adaptation is out in UK cinemas on Friday, August 30th

There have been numerous adaptions of The Count of Monte Cristo for the screen, not to mention radio and other media, over the years; this latest one is directed by the screenwriters of The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan and The Three Musketeers: Milady (both Martin Bourboulon, 2023), who clearly have a strong feel for Alexandre Dumas’ works.

Much of what’s here is familiar: shortly after the fall of Napoleon, on the day of his wedding to sweetheart Mercédès (Anaïs Demoustier from The New Girlfriend, François Ozon, 2014), ship’s crew member Edmond Dantès (Pierre Niney from Frantz, François Ozon, 2016) is arrested for Bonapartism, falsely accused by another crew member Danglars (Patrick Mille from the two 2023 Three Musketeers movies and Love Crime, Alain Corneau, 2010). Neither the crown prosecutor Villefort (Laurent Lafitte) nor Dantès’ friend Fernand de Morcef (Bastien Bouillon from Jumbo, Zoé Wittock, 2020) refute these allegations, although both know them to be untrue, since both have their own reasons for doing so: the prosecutor because Dantès could unwittingly ruin him, Fernand because he too is in love with and wishes to marry Mercédès.… Read the rest

Tags adaption, Adèle Simphal, Alexandre de La Patellière, Alexandre Dumas, Anaïs Demoustier, Anamaria Vartolomei, arrest, bastard son, Bastien Bouillon, body in the water, Bonapartism, burial alive, burial at birth, cell, Chateau d’If, coward, crown prosecutor, disguise, drowning, dungeon, escape, France, grief, incarceration, intrigue, jealousy, Julie De Bona, justice, Laurent Lafitte, Marseilles, Matthieu Delaporte, mistress, novel, partisan, Patrick Mille, Pierfrancesco Favino, Pierre Niney, post-Napoleonic. Napoleon, prison cell, prisoner, prosecutor, prostitution, put things right, recognise, remorse, rescue, revenge, rival in love, ruin, ship in distress, ship on fire, ship’s crew member, skulduggery, Stéphane Varupenne, storm at sea, The Count of Monte Cristo, the fall of Napoleon, treasure, tunnel, unsuspecting, Vassili Schneider, vengeance, Vivant, ward, wedding day, younger generation