Tag: forces

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

One Battle After Another

Director – Paul Thomas Anderson – 2025 – US – Cert. 12A – 161m

*****

Over a decade after they disappeared into a safe town with new identities, a father and now-teenage daughter are tracked down by their army officer nemesis… – one of the most extraordinary Warner Bros. action movies you’ve ever seen is out in UK cinemas on Friday, September 26th

Radical, black revolutionary Perfidia Beverley Hills (Teyana Taylor) is on the verge of leading the forces of underground far-left organisation the French 75 in an attack on a Californian immigration centre to free those imprisoned when a bedraggled man pulling a trailer, looking to all intents and purposes like a refugee, turns up. Pat Calhoun (Leonardo DiCaprio) tells Perfidia he has all the explosives she could possibly need, and sets about using them with her blessing, putting on an impressive show of pyrotechnics to prove his credentials. Inside the centre, Perfidia locates its commanding officer Col. Steven J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn) to sexually humiliate him at gunpoint. Surprisingly, this personal violation only serves to turn the white soldier on.

With Pat and the pregnant Perfidia now a couple, she carries on her high octane, physically demanding revolutionary activities, belly fully swollen, as if there were no child.… Read the rest

Tags Academy Award, Academy Awards, Academy Awards 2025-26, Academy Awards 2026, across rooftops, action movie, adaptation, alert, all hell breaks loose, archetype, army officer, assassination, at gunpoint, attack, Baktan Crossteen, bank robbery, Benicio Del Toro, black revolutionary, California, can’t remember the answer, captured, Chase Infiniti, Christmas Adventurers, comedy of errors, commanding officer Colonel, conceals significant information, concert, contemporary, convent, couple, dereliction of motherhood, device, explosives, far-left, far-left organisation, fathers and daughters, forces, free the captives, hidden below the horizon, high school, high school concert, immigrant escape route, immigration centre, immigration raids, interracial relationship, karate sensei, Leonardo DiCaprio, loo break, mobile phone, motherhood, nemesis, new identity, Olympian, One Battle After Another, operative, organisation, Oscar, Oscar nominations, Oscar nominations 2025-26, Oscar nominations 2026, Oscar winners, Oscar winners 2025-26, Oscar winners 2026, Oscars, Oscars 2025-26, Oscars 2026, Paul Thomas Anderson, payphone, Perfidia., pre-written, pregnant, present day, protocols, pyrotechnics, question and answer session, radical, radical order of weed-growing nuns, raise the child, Regina Hall, revolutionary, revolutionary war hero., right-wing, rolling road, safe city, Sean Penn, sexual humiliation, sexual humiliation at gunpoint, sexual violation, single parent, Sisters of the Brave Beaver, speech, substance abuse, teen, teenager, Teyana Taylor, the French 75, the next ridge, Thomas Pynchon, Tony Goldwyn, tough guy, trackable, tracked down, trailer, underground, US, US White Christian Nationalism, Vineland, Warner Bros., Warner Bros. tough guy, What time is it?, White Christian Suprematist group, witness protection programme

Animation Features Movies

The Inventor

Directors – Jim Capobianco, Pierre-Luc Granjon – 2023 – US, France, Ireland – Cert. PG – 100m

****

Towards the end of his life, inventor Leonardo da Vinci goes to live in France under the patronage of the King – stop frame / drawn animation composite is out in the UK’s Vue cinemas on Friday, March 8th

Rome, Italy, 1516. Leonardo da Vinci (voice: Stephen Fry) happily shows off a giant optical system of magnifying glasses for observing the heavens to his assistant Francesco Melzi (voice: Angelino Sandri). Francesco retorts that Leonardo ought to be worried about the Pope who has spies everywhere (and sure enough, there are eyes watching from nearby peepholes). Leonardo’s other assistant, the hulking, mute Zoroastro sources corpses for him, on which the curious Leonardo performs dissections and studies what he finds through making drawings in his quest for find the animated spirit of man, a search which, in dreams and visions, often leads him into confrontation with a mysterious, gargantuan, dark-hooded figure.

The inventor is summoned to Pope Leo X (voice: Matt Berry) who wants to know, why can’t Leonardo just make pretty things? The arrival of a messenger whose helmet is half crushed by a cannonball leads Leo to suggest Leonardo fashion him machines of war.… Read the rest

Tags 2D animation, 3D animation, Angelino Sandri, animation, body, cannonball, capture, castle, character design Cardinal De Beatis, Charles V, city, corpse, Daisy Ridley, Daniel Swan, dissection, drawing, drawn animation, dreams, enemy, flying rigs, forces, France, Francis I, French, Gauthier Battoue, Giuliano de Medici, gravedigger, Henry VIII, hooded, human body, ideal city, Inventor, Ireland, Italy, Jane Osborn, Jim Capobianco, John Gilkey, king, Leonardo da Vinci, lion, Louise de Savoy, magnifying glasses, Marion Cotillard, Matt Berry, Max Baumgarten, Meaning Of Life, mechanical, mechanical lion, Natalie Palamides, observation, obsession, optics, painting, pastel shade, peace, peepholes, Pierre-Luc Granjon, pontiff, Pope, Pope Leo X, power, Princess Marguerite de Navarre, puppet, Queen Mother, Renaissance, Rome, royal court, spirit, spirit of man, statue, Stephen Fry, stop-frame, stop-frame animation, stop-motion, stop-motion animation, study, suns, The Garden Of Earthly Delights, US, visions, war, war machines, wire work