''The Conquest'' (french: La conquête) is a 2011 French Biographical film on

Nicolas Sarkozy Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa (; ; born 28 January 1955) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2007 to 2012. Born in Paris, he is of Hungarian, Greek Jewish, and French origin. Mayor of Neuilly-sur-Se ...

directed by Xavier Durringer.

Plot

On May 6, 2007,

, between two phone calls to his wife Cécilia, remembers the past five years. In 2002, he returned to the forefront of political life by being appointed interior minister by President of the Republic,

Jacques Chirac Jacques René Chirac (, , ; 29 November 193226 September 2019) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. Chirac was previously Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988, as well as Ma ...

, in the government of

Jean-Pierre Raffarin Jean-Pierre Raffarin (; born 3 August 1948) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 6 May 2002 to 31 May 2005. He resigned after France's rejection of the referendum on the European Union draft constitution. Howeve ...

. Gradually, he managed to make a name and decided to prepare to succeed President Chirac at the Elysee in 2007. However, he must cope with significant challenges as his rivalry with the Foreign Minister,

Dominique de Villepin Dominique Marie François René Galouzeau de Villepin (; born 14 November 1953) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 31 May 2005 to 17 May 2007 under President Jacques Chirac. In his career working at the Minist ...

, or the secret romance with Cecilia advertising

Richard Attias Richard Attias (born 19 November 1959) is a Moroccan events producer, founder and former chairman of PublicisLive and currently the executive chairman of Richard Attias and Associates. He is also the founder of The New York Forum and the co-foun ...

and his affair with the journalist

Anne Fulda Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female given name Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie. Anne is sometimes used as a male name in the ...

Cast

Denis Podalydès Denis Podalydès (born 22 April 1963) is a French actor and scriptwriter of Greek descent. Podalydès has appeared in more than 140 films and television shows since 1989. He starred in '' The Officers' Ward'', which was entered into the 2001 Can ...

Florence Pernel Florence Pernel (born 30 June 1962) is a French actress. Early life Pernel was born on 30 June 1962 in Paris. She began her acting career at the age of 10 with the TV serial ''Plein soleil'' and two years later she made her film debut with Just ...

Cécilia Sarkozy "Cecilia" is a song by American musical duo Simon & Garfunkel. It was released in April 1970 as the third single from the group's fifth studio album, '' Bridge over Troubled Water'' (1970). Written by Paul Simon, the song's origins lie in a l ...

Bernard Le Coq Bernard Le Coq (born 25 September 1950) is a French actor. He has appeared in more than one hundred and fifty films since 1967. His first big role Bernard Le Coq has played as Annie Girardot's son and Claude Jade's brother in the family dra ...

Michèle Moretti Michèle Moretti (born 15 March 1940 in Paris, France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Amer ...

Bernadette Chirac Bernadette Thérèse Marie Chirac ( Chodron de Courcel; born 18 May 1933) is a French politician and the widow of the former president Jacques Chirac. She and Chirac met as students at Sciences Po, and were married on 16 March 1956. They had t ...

Hippolyte Girardot Hippolyte Girardot (born Frédéric Girardot; 10 October 1955) is a French actor, film director and screenwriter. He is the father of actress Ana Girardot. Selected filmography * 1973: '' La Femme de Jean'', directed by Yannick Bellon, Rémi ...

as Claude Guéant *

Samuel Labarthe Samuel Labarthe (born 16 May 1962) is a French-Swiss actor. He appeared in more than fifty films since 1985. Selected filmography References External links

* 1962 births Living people French male film actors {{France-film-ac ...

* Emmanuel Noblet as

Bruno Le Maire Bruno Le Maire (; born 15 April 1969) is a French politician and former diplomat who has served as Minister of the Economy and Finance since 2017 under President Emmanuel Macron. A former member of The Republicans (LR), which he left in 2017 to ...

Pierre Cassignard Pierre Cassignard (19 December 1965 – 20 December 2021) was a French stage and screen actor. Early life Pierre Cassignard was born in Sainte-Foy-la-Grande in Grionde, France, on 19 December 1965. In the early 1980s, he moved to Paris to study ...

Frédéric Lefebvre Frédéric Lefebvre (; born 14 October 1963 in Neuilly-sur-Seine) is a French politician who served as Secretary of State for Trade, Small and Medium Enterprises, Tourism, Services, Liberal professions and Consumption under the Minister of Ec ...

* Michel Bompoil as

Henri Guaino Henri Guaino (born 11 March 1957) is a French speechwriter and politician who served as the member of the National Assembly (France), National Assembly for the Yvelines's 3rd constituency, 3rd constituency of Yvelines from 2012 to 2017. A membe ...

* Saïda Jawad as

Rachida Dati Rachida Dati (; ar, رشيدة داتي, link=no; born 27 November 1965) is a French politician who served as Member of the European Parliament, representing Île-de-France. Prior to her election, she held the cabinet post of Keeper of the Sea ...

* Gérard Chaillou as

Jean-Louis Debré Jean-Louis Debré (; born 30 September 1944) is a former French judge and politician who served as President of the National Assembly from 2002 to 2007 and President of the Constitutional Council from 2007 to 2016.Richard Attias Richard Attias (born 19 November 1959) is a Moroccan events producer, founder and former chairman of PublicisLive and currently the executive chairman of Richard Attias and Associates. He is also the founder of The New York Forum and the co-foun ...

* Laurent Claret as

Philippe Rondot Philippe Rondot (5 October 1936 – 31 December 2017) was a French general, formerly an important personality of the French intelligence. He worked for both the domestic intelligence DST and the foreign intelligence DGSE (traditionally rival servi ...

* Dominique Daguier as

Jean-Louis Gergorin Jean-Louis Gergorin is a French cybersecurity expert, strategy consultant, former diplomat, and former executive vice president of EADS—the giant European aerospace company that controls and has been subsequently known as Airbus. He was at the or ...

Grégory Fitoussi Grégory Fitoussi (born 13 August 1976) is a French actor best known for appearing in television series such as '' Spiral'', '' Spin'' and ''Mr Selfridge''. Personal life He was born in Paris to Pied-Noir Sephardi Jewish parents. His parents ope ...

as Laurent Solly *

Dominique Besnehard Dominique Besnehard (; born 5 February 1954) is a French actor, film producer, casting director, writer and talent manager. He has appeared in more than 80 films and television shows since 1975. He starred in the 1983 film '' À nos amours'', wh ...

as Pierre Charon *

Nicolas Moreau Nicolas Moreau (born 28 June 1969) is a French actor and a theatre director. Career Moreau debuted in 1995 in four roles: as Marc, the son of Claude Jade and Georges Claisse in Jacques Richards' television movie '' Porté disparu''; as Andreï ...

as Pierre Giacometti * Jérémie Fontaine as Louis Sarkozy * Mathias Mlekuz as Franck Louvrier * Fabrice Cals as Michaël Darmon * Laurent Olmedo as Philippe Ridet * Bruno López as Jean-François Achilli * Jean-Pierre Léonardini as Bruno Jeudy * Marine Royer as Delphine Byrka * Monica Abularach as Elodie Grégoire

Production

The movie was presented the same day of its release date to the

2011 Cannes Film Festival The 64th Cannes Film Festival was held from 11 to 22 May 2011. American actor Robert De Niro served as the president of the jury for the main competition and French filmmaker Michel Gondry headed the jury for the short film competition. South Ko ...

, on May 18, 2011.

Critical reception

The movie was well received by the critics. , the film holds a 77% approval rating on review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, based on 31 reviews with an average rating of 6.4 out of 10.

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

gave the film a score of 62 out of 100, based on 14 critics.

Accolades

References

External links

* 2011 films French biographical drama films Biographical films about presidents Films about elections 2007 French presidential election Nicolas Sarkozy Films scored by Nicola Piovani Films directed by Xavier Durringer 2010s French films {{bio-film-stub