Carla Bruni-Sarkozy today said she was "worried" about a biopic of Nicolas Sarkozy that threatens to turn him into an international laughing stock and will debut at the Cannes Film Festival.
It has even been suggested that the world premiere of La Conquete (The Conquest) at the French festival after months of speculation about its content may have persuaded France's first couple to stay away from Cannes.
Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy confirmed that she will not go down the red carpet at the premiere of her film, Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris, which will open the 10-day event.
Mr Sarkozy is not expected to turn up either, but his character will be brought to life in The Conquest, a feature so life-like it resembles a documentary and which charts his rise to power and victory in the 2007 election.
Inspired by the merciless British satire In the Loop, it is subtitled "The man who won the presidency, but lost a wife".
Critics of Sarkozy await its unveiling with glee, after a teasing trailer for the film showed a stack-heeled president-in-waiting storming out of a meeting with the words: "I am a Ferrari. You open the hood with white gloves on."
It also shows him fretting about his height and using highly colourful language to describe his enemies. Yet it brings out a more sympathetic side of the French leader as he struggles to cope with the break-up of his marriage to Cécilia, his second wife.
The premiere is the last thing Mr Sarkozy needs as he seeks to "re-presidentialise" himself next year's elections in which he will almost certainly seek a second five-year term.
His dismally low approval rating amongst the French electorate showed faint signs of recovery this week – up four points to 34 per cent, according to one poll.
The film made amid such secrecy that the cast members were long unable to view the finished film. Nor were Mr Sarkozy or his aides, but they were unamused by the trailer, with one former Sarkozy spin doctor declaring: "What we have seen, we do not like at all."
Its producers claim they had a terrible time trying to get funding for the "dangerous and risky project", saying French TV channels refused to touch it. The script was leaked and Rachida Dati, Mr Sarkozy's glitzy former justice minister reportedly tried to contact the actress playing her, to no avail.
The French leader is played by Denis Podalydès, a well-known classical actor who dons a wig for the role. His impersonation of Mr Sarkozy's voice and mannerisms is uncanny, and the actor studied endless film footage of the President in order to perfect his performance.
Mr Podalydès said he met the President in person ten months after the shooting at the Elysée as a "form of courtesy" and because it gave him a kick.
"It's as if an actor who plays Shakespeare met Hamlet," he said.
Mr Sarkozy simply asked him whether he enjoyed the role to which he replied "enormously". "That's the most important thing," he said, adding: "I don't like power, but I like exercising it." Today, Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy said she would go and see it, adding: "I am very curious if a little worried. The cast is of a high quality, as is the production and script writers. I wait to see whether it is all one way (against my husband)." Mr Podalydès said this was not the case. "If something in my acting says 'don't vote for him' or 'vote for him' I will have missed the mark," he said.
He added that Mr Sarkozy told him. "I don't read books on me. So I won't be going to see the film either."
No comments:
Post a Comment