The Conquest (2011)

The political life of Nicolas Sarkozy is the basis of "The Conquest", a fictional work that examines the events in his life, before and after becoming France's president. There is a disclaimer as the film opens in which a warning informs the viewer this clearly an attempt to tell the story, not exactly what happened in real life.Nicolas Sarkozy, an ambitious man, was tapped by Jacques Chirac to be his Interior minister. At the time, M. Chirac had no intention of running again. He nurtured Nicolas, whom he found to be an astute politician with charisma and chutzpah, enough to capture the voting public's imagination. Sarkozy had a formidable opponent in Dominic Villepin, who had ambitions of his own. The story deals with the intrigues and obstacles surrounding these professional politicians.The story also zeroes in Nicolas relation with his then wife, Cecilia, an intelligent woman who besides being Mrs. Sarkozy, was his adviser. It becomes imminent the deteriorating relationship between Nicolas and Cecilia. They eventually divorced. The political animal Nicolas Sarkozy was, lost much more than Cecilia in the process.Xavier Durringer directs "The Conquest" more as a farce than a real portrayal of the man. There are glimpses throughout the story of his power and prominence in the French political life, but ultimately, the film feels empty as it tries to entertain rather than examine in depth the issues that brought M. Sarkozy to power.The director achieves a coup in the casting of the main roles. Denis Podalydes reminds us of Nicolas Sarkozy's posture doing an excellent impersonation of the subject of the picture. Bernard LeCoq is perfect as Jacques Chirac, the powerful figure in French political life. Samuel Labarthe bears an uncanny resemblance to Dominic Villepin and Florence Pernel does wonders as Cecilia.

I expected this movie to be fun, mostly because of the subject and i admit this kept me watching until the end. I didn't expect a comedy but I did expect a few laughs since Sarkozy does have a way of making you smile just by his appearance. Alas there is not one smile worthy scene in this movie.Other similar movies describing known outcome political events know how to provide just the touch of reality but then provide a good acted story that can be clearly fictional but interesting. This film goes the other way. It's all about looks, it looks real, political figures look and sound familiar but it seems like the whole plot has been written from press cutouts from LeFigaro et Libération.They do take a stab at romance and how political ambitions strain relationships but it is never developed or investigated, it stays in the same paper headline reality of the movie.Frankly this movie greatest flaw is that it lacks intensity. It speculates on what motivated and the decisions that maybe helped Sarkozy win the 2007 elections but it does it in such a boring way that at the end you don't know who to pity more, yourself for the wasted time/money or the ones involved in making such a lame movie.Sadly I would not recommend this movie to anyone for anything. The French glancing through newspapers headlines will already know more than what this movie has to offer. Anyone else who isn't french will probably expect a story but since it isn't there to begin with I'd save my money, maybe rent House of Cards and for the political insight that this movie offers on french politics just browse the Wikipedia pages on Chirac, Sarkozy and Villepin.

The other reviewer spoke about how good the imitators are here, and it's true. The actors who play the parts of Chirac, de Villepin, and a few of the other roles, look a great deal like their real-life counterparts. But that wasn't what most interested me in this very entertaining movie. This is really a no-holds-barred presentation of Sarkozy as a monomaniacal, power-hungry little despot. I couldn't imagine such a film being made about a sitting president here in the US. Even Michael Moore's depiction of Bush during the 9/11 disaster, while it ridicules him, comes nowhere close to this sort of thing. Nor does Frost/Nixon, which of course was filmed long after Nixon left office.Where fact stopped and fiction/imagination begins I didn't always know. But this is one very devastating movie, all the more so because Denis Podalydes does not settle for some sort of caricature, which, given Sarkozy's personal ticks, would have been easy. He gives a very developed, well-rounded presentation of a rather frightening, and not really funny, individual - who could learn a lot about himself by watching this movie.

I will be straight. I find this feature absolutely exquisite. I have never seen a film like this before, about a president still in action with so much resemblance between the characters and the actual people. Everything is very close to the reality here: faces, talking, manners, every thing. We can watch here the greedy, ambitious, ruthless means Sarkozy uses to succeed in power. He is very well described in this movie, of which we already know the ending. Still now. But no one can predict how the future, in 2012, will be like for the midget president. It's not a masterpiece, just watch it as entertainment. You won't see another film like this before a long time. But I hope to be wrong.A real must.