Le promeneur du Champ de Mars

A dying president dictates his memoirs to a young journalist: this may not sound like a very exciting recipe for a film. But in fact, 'The Last Mitterand' is an intriguing movie. In part this stems from the fact that the eponymous French leader was an intriguing person in real life - a literate egoist with a heroic but compromised past, who believed himself to be the last great president of France and who completed his term of office while suffering (without any public announcement) from the terminal stages of cancer. But it also comes from the judicious blend of the political and the personal found in this film. In the title role, I'm not sure Michel Bouqet looks much like Mitterand - but one can believe utterly in his portrait. And while Mitterand was certainly a flawed politician, when contrasted to the leaders of our own celebrity driven age (Mitterand has mistresses who never made the press; current French president Sarkozy uses his sexy young wife - and former mistress - as a PR tool), his claim to at least relative greatness no longer seems risible.

This is not your usual biopic. It is more of a rumination on those big abstract topics the French love so much: what is a legacy? Where is French glory to be found? Does France even have any resonance or sense any more in the face of globalisation/EU? The meanings of Frenchness are clearly articulated here by Guediguian's camera which lovingly records fields of hay, Chartres cathedral, and the lined faces of the 'travailleurs': it is here that the documentary impulse of the film lies, rather than in its tracing of Mitterrand's past, and here that we can see the links to Guediguian's more usual style and themes of filming with their socio-political investment in "ordinary" people. What seems to fascinate the film is less the issue of whether Mitterrand joined the Resistance in 42 or 43 (we never learn the "true" answer) but what happens to a man when he is in power. Mitterrand is closed in by grey doors in the beautiful Elysee palace which becomes a living prison of coldness (interesting the moment where he praises the colour grey). We never get a sense of the man having a family, even though he talks lovingly of a daughter: we see him constantly surrounded by men in black, with him out of a sense of professional duty rather than because they care for him. Power cuts you off from those you are meant to serve...Mitterrand's closest relationship is to the petrified former rulers of France. A chilling portrait of what happens when a man turns himself into an icon. And a movingly brilliant performance from Bouquet, who perfectly captures the horror of the body that slowly falls apart...The film ends on a note of hope for the future, with the birth of a child and the forming of a new relationship: but it is noticeable that it is in the private sphere that Guediguian places hope for the future: the hope of a committed leftist project has perhaps died along with Mitterrand.

Mister president is sitting in an empty railway carriage (second class) with his little entourage. The train is cruising leisurely through a soggy, foggy, wintry landscape. „What is the color of France?" he asks. As always, he gives the answer himself: „It's gray. France has many shades of gray. Gray is not so bad after all."

This movie is gray and slightly spooky throughout, but that really isn't so bad after all. Michel Bouquet delivers a totally stunning performance as an old, dying sly fox who is very lonely and uses – or abuses – a young writer as a companion with the promise to give him material for memoirs. They go crypt- and cemeterywatching together (preparations have to be made), go for walks on the beach and in the park, and at one time the young, self righteous chap comes in handy because the old gentleman can't make it out of the bathtub alone anymore.

The old man has been surrounded by yes-men too long, he is almost overwhelmed by the sense of his own importance. He is out of touch and he senses that it is difficult to make a clean exit. But, hey, he still wants to have some fun. It consists mainly of manipulating other people, letting them feel his power in a subtle, cultivated way - but, well, that's just too bad. You have to enjoy yourself as long as you can.

I consider this movie mainly a comedy, I really don't care if there are any similarities with people that once existed. If a former French president looked like Michel Bouquet, who makes any film he is in watchable, then I can't help it. The set design deserves special mention, it is usually luxurious and stylish in a presidential way but a little shopworn. And it always seems to be cold in this movie. The atmosphere reminded me of Hal Ashby's Being There.

Anybody who likes gray movies should watch this, others had better stay away.

No doubts about it, Michel Bouquet as the late French President, Francois Mitterand, had an excellent performance. It reminds me Bruno Ganz's interpretation of A. Hitler in "Der Untergang" (The Downfall). But, what would have been the movie without him? That is what has disturbed me from the beginning. Antoine Moreau was, to my eyes, everything else but convincing in his role. this could be interpreted as a weakness of the film, as everything looks to have been focused on one and only one character, the old dying Mitterand who is preparing his farewell as president. A little bit of french/European history knowledge might be helpful, but nevertheless, this film is to recommend.

This is a fascinating little film about the last few months in the life of Francois Mitterrand (Michel Bouquet), president of France 1981-95, and his relationship with a young man, Antoine Moreau (Jalil Lespert), who has been commissioned to write his life story.

Bouquet is, quite simply, phenomenal as Mitterrand; his physical resemblance is uncanny and his mannerisms and speech are spot-on. It is a delight to see the way he takes you into the heart and soul of a quite controversial figure in post-War French politics; Bouquet portrays the way that Mitterrand seemed to genuinely retain his socialist beliefs, right up until the 1990s. He visits a closed mine, the scene of a tragedy many years before which cost the lives of forty miners, to make a moving and rousing speech on the plight of French workers and the accomplishments of the socialist party in France (minimum pay, paid holidays, shorter hours, etc.). There is fine language and rhetoric but also genuine feeling, delivered in an awesome performance by Bouquet.

Mitterrand had a great rivalry with Charles de Gaulle, and this is given a lot of time in the film. Also, Lespert is keen to delve into the murky past of Mitterrand during his service in Vichy under Petain; you get the feeling there's a lot more to find out here, something Lespert discovers in his secret trip to the infamous spa town.

It seems pointless, the little sideline of Lespert's personal life, time that could be better spent on Mitterrand's personal life, which is totally absent from this film. I'd like to have seen a lot of archive film: Mitterrand and Kohl meeting at Verdun, for instance.

Mitterrand reflects on modern politics and the great advances made by modern France: for example, the modern transport system (we see Mitterrand travelling by the modern TGV train, the envy of the world).

This is a fascinating film for any Francophile. It is a grey landscape - particularly Mitterrand's last visit to his home town and the beach nearby - but that is politics. Highly recommended.