Overview
- The first film, La Bataille de Gaulle: L’Âge de fer, opened Wednesday, June 3, 2026, after a Cannes screening and has been widely reviewed across the French press.
- Critics have praised the film’s large scale, energetic tone and Simon Abkarian’s portrayal of de Gaulle, noting strong supporting work from Simon Russell Beale, Benoît Magimel and others.
- Historians have publicly objected to significant liberties in the script, pointing to invented or misrepresented scenes such as a fictionalised confrontation with Churchill and other compressions of events.
- The production is one of the year’s biggest French films, financed at roughly €60–75 million and presented as a two‑part diptych with the second film due in cinemas on July 3, 2026, which keeps the debate alive.
- Beyond box‑office prospects, the release has reignited public discussion about how popular films shape national memory and how institutions like the Fondation Charles de Gaulle and scholars should respond to dramatic reinterpretation.