Film strips bare French President

Nicolas Sarkozy to be embarrassed by portrayal of his rise to power; movie also chronicles the last days of his previous marriage

Film strips bare French President

Nicolas Sarkozy to be embarrassed by portrayal of his rise to power; movie also chronicles the last days of his previous marriage

La Conquete (The Conquest), starring Denis Podalydes as Nicolas Sarkozy and Florence Pernel as Cecilia, his second wife, sheds new light on one of the greatest dramas of recent French politics: the desertion of the President by his First Lady just when he needed her most.

The film opens with Sarkozy waking up alone after celebrating his election victory at a hotel on the Champs Elysees.

He spends his first day as President searching in vain for Cecilia, the former model he married in 1996.
A scene set on the previous evening shows him pleading with his wife, who famously refused to vote for him, to attend the celebrations.
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"I'm waiting for you at the Concorde. You have to come." She turned up in the end, but the sight of her crying at his side as everyone else was dancing and cheering intensified speculation that the volatile relationship had entered its final stage.

The couple divorced in October 2007, five months after the election, and Sarkozy married Carla Bruni, the singer, four months later.

The film covers a five-year period from 2002, when Sarkozy was interior minister, to his election as President in May 2007.

The movie is written by Patrick Rotman, a respected historian and screenwriter, who collected anecdotes from key witnesses to flesh out his narrative. Producers of the filmu00a0 insist it depicts real events.

This makes it a daring novelty in the French film world. It is the first time a sitting French president has been placed under the cinema spotlight.

It is unclear what Sarkozy thinks, but France Televisions, the state broadcaster, turned down the project for fear of offending him.

A special wig had to be designed for the balding Podalydes to help him resemble Sarkozy.

Lunch date
Yesterday, Carla Bruni and Michelle Obama had lunch together while French President Nicolas Sarkozy met with President Obama. The last time both the first ladies met, there was an uproar as an unauthorised book on Bruni said that Michelle felt life at First Lady was 'hell.'