Angélique Christafis' article for The Guardian...

http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/6466/chirac1jg.th.jpg

Finally some political satires.
After téléfilms on the war of Algeria, the commemoration of the abolition of slavery etc...the documentaries, the téléfilms etc...a film with Courau, Elkarhaz and co on this famous night of massacre in Paris etc...
This country is apparently finally starting to look at itself and its dark past and present in the mirror without blinkers, in the arts at least...Very slowly but (hopefully) surely...
And of course the initiative had to be taken by one of those cheeky Canal plus guys...Karl Zéro (that's not his real name...)!
We're not like our fantastic neighbours the Italians yet about all this... (exemples: Nani Moretti commenting on a pre-elections political televised debates in a very famous scene of one of his films, two movies already on Berlusconi and a great tradition of politically engaged films coming out even in the heart of the controversies when the subjects are very touchy...etc...etc...
You can find it surprising (when you don't know how the movie-making industry gets its money here...) because the French are very critical and even self-depreciative about their country, their institutions, their politicians, their national teams whatever...They laugh at them a lot, debate even more about them. The media wehter on tv or the written press in general and some of them in particular can be very irreverencious (is that an English term? erm...) like "Le Canard Enchaîné", "Marianne" and co...But in cinéma : almost nothing and that's a shame...

But now, at least, we have the hilarious ... DANS LA PEAU DE JACQUES CHIRAC!! LOL
www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm=110552.html!

And there are still the tv institution 'Les Guignols de l'info" on tv...from Canal plus again before some others attempt. =)

I'm very sad "Le vrai Journal" from Karl Zéro has been cancelled though...What are they thinking?! Anyway...

Chirac becomes a figure of fun - by being himself

Satire uses archive TV clips from 40-year career 'No violence but plenty of corpses,' say creators

Angelique Chrisafis in Paris
Saturday May 13, 2006
The Guardian

'A very human comedy' ... Dans la Peau de "Jacquot" Chirac

He is beset by allegations of a political smear campaign, has been forced to deny the existence of a secret Japanese bank account, and is being described as the embodiment of the decline of France. But just when Jacques Chirac thought things could not get worse, he is about to make history as the first French president to be immortalised as a complete buffoon on the cinema screen, in a satirical documentary by two Oscar winners.

Dans la Peau de Jacques Chirac - Being Jacques Chirac - played to tears of laughter at Paris previews this week. It will open in France on May 31 as part of a phenomenon the newspaper Libération calls "Chiracophobia: the new national sport".

Already The Tragedy of the President, a book detailing the president's gluttony, lies, and belief in his own mysterious healing powers, sold out its first print run in days and has topped the bestseller list for seven weeks. Its author, Franz-Olivier Giesbert, has been stopped in the street by people shaking his hand and saying "Bravo!".

But being Jacques Chirac goes a step further in its humiliating treatment of a head of state. Commentators say the film would have been unthinkable even a few years ago, and its box office takings will reveal whether the nation has lost all respect for the institution of president.

The 90-minute film is made up entirely of clips from archive television footage of Mr Chirac during nearly 40 years in public office, as minister, prime minister, Paris mayor and president. The footage gives free reign to his perpetual suave grin, vanity and famous political dithering and U-turning which saw him named the "weathervane".

We see Mr Chirac wandering his country estate, his love of shaking hands - even with dogs, his chauffeur relaying how he would come out of 15-minute appointments with his trousers undone; and we see the frostiness from his long-suffering and fearsome wife Bernadette. An alarmingly convincing voiceover by a Chirac impersonator gives a hilarious commentary on the president's life.

French TV channels stayed well away and did not buy it. But when the film opens at 100 cinemas across France its box office returns will provide a barometer of "the nation's humour" and the extent of Mr Chirac's fall from favour, according to the press.

The film's producers are the same French team that created March of the Penguins, which won this year's Oscar for best documentary and became the second most successful documentary in US box office history after Michael Moore's Farenheit 9/11. Being Jacques Chirac is already being compared to a Michael Moore-style treatment. But its writer-director team, the satirists Karl Zero and Michel Royer, disagree. "Moore's film about George Bush came out at the time of the US 2004 election campaign, it was a piece of propaganda against his re-election," Zero said.

"We know Chirac doesn't aspire to a third term as president ... this is not a propaganda film anti-, or pro-, Chirac." He described it as an "unauthorised biography", an unflinching and comic look at France's political elite and their behaviour.

France's bitter political rivalries and Mr Chirac's stealthy death-stares at opponents sometimes make for cringe-worthy viewing, as does the appearance of a 20-year-old student, Nicolas Sarkozy, now interior minister and a presidential pretender, at Mr Chirac's side.

But the film is a timely reminder of some of the president's set phrases, such as his repeated "where's the proof?" when asked about numerous corruption scandals.

Mr Chirac's friends and foes, including his old enemy, Francois Mitterrand, are not spared the microscope. "This is a film with no gunfire, no violence, but plenty of corpses," Zero said.

"Chirac as a true cinematic hero," added the producer, Bonne Pioche.

"This is a very human comedy, with all the contradictions we recognise in ourselves. It's about a politician who we elected and who we therefore have the right to laugh at."