A film by René-Jean BOUYER première diffusion télévisuelle le june 25 2005

90 minutes

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Available on DVD since november 02 2005

Editions Montparnasse

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De Gaulle gave thousands of speeches, answered hundreds of questions, wrote thousands of pages, left thirteen volumes of correspondence and yet, in spite of all this, he remains an enigmatic figure. The General was a man who, very early on, gave up showing his feelings or personal tastes to embody a "certain notion of France". "There's no Charles in De Gaulle," André Malraux concluded, perhaps a little hastily.

This film attempts to approach Charles, the "private De Gaulle", the man that the General continually attempted to hide from public gaze and about which he never wished to talk. The man that also allows us at times to understand his choices, his U-turns or the misunderstandings of his political career.

The film is based on the accounts of those closest to him, primarily his son, Admiral Philippe de Gaulle, but also his son-in-law, his daughter-in-law and his grandchildren, in short all those who had the privilege of sharing his private world, at La Boisserie or at the Elysée. From time to time, he would share his thoughts with them, talking about his ideas or misgivings, revealing to them his irony, his certainties or his scepticism. De Gaulle was a much more emotional person than he showed himself to be and, as questions are answered in the course of the film, his humane side is highlighted as the mystery shrouding him clears.

These accounts reveal De Gaulle to be a multi-faceted personality, several men at once, but only the figure of the General and later and that of the President were revealed to the public at large. The leader had to cut himself off from others and wrap himself in shadows. He even wrote of the necessity of this in "The Edge of the Sword": "Never inform anybody of one's intentions and even less of one's feelings."

René-Jean Bouyer

April 2005