It is not the first time that films devoted to the second world war are presented Cannes. But looking at the official selection of films competing this year, one might say, dare I say it, that there is a group firing squad?
Unrolling the program, there are no fewer than five full-length films dedicated to this period, where two mythical figures emerge:
Resistance leader Jean Moulin, portrayed on screen by Gilles Lellouche, in his confrontation with his tormentor Klaus Barbie, in the film simply titled Moulin, by Hungarian director Laszlo Nemes.
And General de Gaulle portrayed by actor Simon Abkarian in the film by Antonin Baudry entitled La Bataille de Gaulle, a diptych covering the years 1940 to 1942.
In addition to these key characters of the Second World War, there is also Daniel Auteuil’s film La Troisième nuit which recounts the rescue of 108 Jewish children smuggled out of the Vénissieux camp in the suburbs of Lyon.
Let’s also add Notre Salut, by Emmanuel Marre, inspired by the life of his great-great-grandfather Henri Marre, who did everything to try to free France from the grip of Vichy. And to complete the list, the film 1949, signed Pawel Pawlikowski, which tells the story of the return to Germany of the great writer Thomas Mann and his journey through a country ravaged by war.
What do you think about this unmistakably war-centric lens at Cannes?
I don’t think the selector Thierry Frémeaux is particularly focused on war. What is interesting is to see that several European directors have independently focused on key characters and episodes of the Second World War. Just like Christopher Nolan did in 2017 with his film Dunkirk, which was not yet finished for Cannes this year. We could say that the festival reflects its times, or rather the cinema of its time, and whether we like it or not, from Ukraine to Iran or the Middle East, the drumbeats of war are sounding, in a time where providential men are rare.
In a way, it’s as if films compel us to open our eyes to today’s reality through the lens of history. Do you remember Godard’s phrase: photography is truth, cinema is truth 24 times a second. In 2026, as Gilles Gressani, a young geopolitics researcher told me this week, we are closer to 2050 than to the year 2000. True. All the more reason, faced with this push towards an uncertain future, to seek out what the past holds for us, with both unease and hope. If current events are the draft of history, history can be the draft of our future.
Do you see this as a worrying and pessimistic message?
No, on the contrary, paradoxically, I see it as an encouragement to resist. In these films, Jean Moulin doesn’t speak in front of Barbie, he dies without saying anything and gives a chance and a new lease of life to the Resistance. The De Gaulle we see is the one who will invent free France after winning the battle of Montcornet, in Ain, by applying his theory of mobile defense with columns of tanks. As for the rescue of the children from Vénissieux, it shows that men can stand up at the risk of their lives against the worst oppressors. In a way, these films are lessons in freedom, teaching us or reminding us to say no.
In this issue this week
After the world according to Karl Marx and our lives according to Sigmund Freud, we conclude our spring of philosophers with the thought of Nietzsche. Breaking our chains with Nietzche. Resistance once again…
