A glance at France

Reviewed - The Last Mitterand (Le Promeneur du Champ de Mars): Georges-Marc Benamou's book Le Dernier Mitterrand, a record of conversations between the author and the late François Mitterrand, caused something of a sensation on its publication in France.

In this fascinating adaptation, Robert Guédiguian, a communist previously best known for dramas focusing on working-class life in Marseilles, ignores the revelations about the statesman's private life - no mention of the scoffing of roast ortolan, par exemple - and focuses on the political scandals and compromises that formed this enigmatic politician.

Shot by Renato Berta in muddy, left-wing greys, the film has to do with Marxism, death, betrayal and the continuing legacy of the Nazi occupation in French public life. Much of the credit for keeping this austere drama so gripping should be directed towards Michel Bouquet, who plays the dying president with grace and a little mischief.

Guédiguian, working from a script by Benamou and Gilles Taurand, finds space for all the accusations levelled against his subject - collaborator, patrician, hypocrite - but Bouquet brings such quiet dignity to the crafty statesman that it is hard not to sympathise.

The film-makers have elected to ease their version towards fiction. Benamou's role is taken by a political journalist named Antoine Moreau (Jalil Lespert), while Bouquet's character is listed in the credits simply as "the president" (though an old acquaintance does refer to him as "François").

At the same time as Antoine is struggling to draw the truth out of his often-reluctant interviewee, he is fretting over the break-up of his relationship with his communist girlfriend. The personal and the political mesh together in a fashion that, though neat, never seems schematic.

Unsurprisingly, given the director's leftish inclinations, The Last Mitterand encourages us to mourn for the death of a certain type of socialism. Considering recent noises made by the current Gaullist president about defending the French social model, outsiders may wonder what Guédiguian is fussing about.