British actor Sir Simon Russell Beale plays a tricky and wavering Winston Churchill in De Gaulle: Resistance, a new French film currently showing in cinemas.
The French production stars French-Armenian actor Simon Abkarian as General Charles de Gaulle, portraying the fraught wartime relationship between the British prime minister and the Free French leader during the Second World War.
The drama is based on a biography of General de Gaulle by English author Julian Jackson. French professors have reportedly fumed for years because Jackson's account of France's greatest modern leader is widely considered superior to anything written by French historians.
In contrast to standard screen depictions portraying Churchill as a faultless, smiling hero chatting merrily to citizens on the London Tube while the Luftwaffe roars overhead, the film presents him as a flawed and awkward misfit. It depicts Churchill tottering on the brink of bankruptcy, supported by handouts from dubious men, and routinely humiliated by American leadership.
The film explores the historical background explaining why King George VI initially mistrusted Churchill, why much of the Conservative Party loathed him, and why British voters ousted him in 1945. While recognizing Churchill's brilliant leadership on key occasions, the narrative highlights that he was also frequently wrong.
Beale wears unusual wardrobe items in the role, including a reddish tweed suit that commentator Peter Hitchens notes would get a man horsewhipped on the steps of any respected London club. Beale also performs Churchill speaking French with a broad English accent, mangling the graceful language of Moliere and Victor Hugo.
Portrayal of Charles de Gaulle
The drama depicts de Gaulle as a leader who began with nothing, having achieved one of France's few battlefield successes by smashing a column of Nazi tanks with astute leadership and physical courage under fire. He served briefly as war minister before fleeing across the English Channel to London in June 1940.
Abkarian, who stands just over 6ft tall, conveys the physical stature of the 6ft 5in general. The film presents de Gaulle as an aloof figure who fretted that he was too tall for people to cope with, resembling a camel holding secret knowledge while given to silent brooding and furious argument. The general is also shown struggling with English hospitality, asking after drinking a cup of coffee, "Is this perhaps the famous English tea?"
Upon arriving in London, de Gaulle faced cautious and mean treatment from British officials, who allocated him a dingy room to work from as he sought to rally French citizens refusing defeat. Churchill was initially browbeaten by an unimaginative War Cabinet into abandoning collaboration with de Gaulle, but reversed course after seeing unique qualities in the French general.
On June 18, 1940, the day after his arrival, de Gaulle was permitted to make his first BBC radio broadcast to rally the Free French. He delivered broadcasts repeatedly throughout the war, giving hope to millions who recognized his voice like a friend, though almost nobody in France knew what he looked like until he marched into Paris on Liberation Day in 1944.
Conflict and Clash of Wills
The film portrays constant friction between the two leaders, with Churchill growling and de Gaulle snapping back. De Gaulle established military bases in France's African empire to launch the campaign against the collaborating Vichy regime of Marshal Petain.
The struggle reached a climax during a meeting at 10 Downing Street when de Gaulle insisted that he embodied France, a claim Churchill bitingly contested. In response, de Gaulle seized an antique chair, smashed it to pieces, and stormed off to his wife and daughter in Hampstead to sulk until events proved him right.
Churchill eventually realized that de Gaulle possessed a profound understanding of power and kingship, combined with total ruthlessness and wild gambler's courage. Churchill recognized that de Gaulle's uncompromising refusal to accept defeat would ultimately inspire the French people to victory.
Relations with the United States
The production depicts United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt as a cold, harsh, and tricky leader who hated de Gaulle. Roosevelt initially preferred working with Vichy collaborators, viewing them as more pliant than the French general.
During a White House meeting, Roosevelt icily berated Churchill for failing to control de Gaulle, an exchange Hitchens compares to Donald Trump berating Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. De Gaulle explained his defiance by warning that failing to resist Washington would leave France as an American vassal, warning that Britain faced the same destiny.
Writing in 247 News Agency, Hitchens notes that by 2026, France maintains an independent nuclear deterrent designed, manufactured, and controlled entirely at home. By contrast, Britain's nuclear system relies on American missiles and designs, which likely cannot be launched without United States permission.
