La Bataille de Gaulle - partie 2 : J'écris ton nom
Having really enjoyed the first movie, we went to see the second one only a few days later. I expected the pivot between the two movies to be the death of Darlan and the turning point in the way De Gaulle was considered by Churchill and Roosevelt, but I was wrong. The tension in this second movie is more driven by the plans of the allies to move forward without De Gaulle and (to a large extent) without a France that would have its own say in its destiny. This is something that I kind of knew, but the movie drives the point home really well. It's wonderfully filmed and acted, with genuine moments of thrill and suspense, but most important to me, it made me realise how much of the story of the WW2 victory in Europe as it's taught and discussed in France is a sort of inevitability, of manifest destiny, whereas the movie (more correctly I suspect) shows how much of it was down to chance and the ability of De Gaulle (and others) to grab it. In a sense, I found it sobering. As often with WW2 movies, there is a glorification of the allies in war that I find myself incapable of resisting while intellectually knowing that it is just a glorification of war. I have yet to see a filmed story of victory that eschews that elation...
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