An "insightful film" on Francois Mitterand and his image

Trish Thalman reviews the "Le Prince et Son Image"  directed by Hugues Le Paige. This was shown at Visions du Réel at the weekend. If you missed any of these films that are being reviewed, all is not lost, quite often they are shown again either on television or at the cinema later on in the year and Living in Nyon will alert readers in advance if this should happen. “One is only alone when facing death”- These are the words of Francois Mitterand after the Socialists lost the 1993 Legislative Election. Mitterand’s power was in decline, and he was ill (though only a few knew of his illness). From 1987 until 1993, Hugues Le Paige, was one of the few journalists allowed into Mitterand’s, ‘Inner Circle’ of journalists and photographers who had exclusive access to him, based on the quality of their work and earned trust of the President. This insightful film is a collection of poignant, intimate, at times lively, open and warm, but mostly serious, clips of quality and importance from La Paige’s personal library of film and interviews he made with Mitterand during the waning years of his Presidency. The film opens with a large, summer garden party at the Elysée Palace, circa 1981, with Mitterand the center of attention, his favourite spot. Everything is going the way he planned it, with his coterie of journalists and photographers following along. What we learn at the very beginning is that Mitterand, with his power and responsibilities, spent a great amount of time and energy controlling his own image with everyone for everyone.  For Le Paige, the major dilemma after being told personally by Mitterand (the exact moment is shown in the film) that he would be one of the favoured journalists in the ‘Inner-Circle’, was “how could I tell the truth and keep my freedom”.

Mitterand stages a spontaneous, ‘ordinary man’ outing, as part of the image. He walks alone, unnoticed on the streets of Paris, and ‘pops in’ to a local bookstore that is selling his recently published book of letters, which he proclaimed that he had “not seen”. In fact, he co-edited and controlled every word that went into the book. Le Paige gets a hurried call to come along and film Mitterand’s sortie into the public realm. The bookstore owner recognises him and shakes his hand. Nobody else looks at him. The sequence is filmed from outside the bookstore, looking into the shop through golden-lit windows. He appears to be any other customer in his flat-cap and elegant camelhair coat looking at a book about Francois Mitterand. A traditional ‘staged’ and filmed event that Mitterand would do every year was to walk up to the summit of a high hill in the Burgundy region along with his ‘chosen’ guests. Mitterand jokes around and also makes comments contrary to most things that the others say. They remain silent. He wears perfectly pressed, egg/shell white corduroy trousers and polished hiking boots, and berates a couple of others for wearing tennis shoes for hiking. The setting, his outfit and ‘designed casualness’ is there for all to see. At the end of the film we see Mitterand saying ‘goodbye and thank you’ to his loyal party members after the ’93 election loss. Hugues is again asked to shoot from the hallway into the room (door open) where Mitterand is meeting with his people. He is strategically standing near the window with natural backlighting, while he is shaking hands and chatting to colleagues, along with a younger Bernard Kouchner and Segoline Royale. The grainy, telephoto shots give a lasting impression of the loneliness and fading power of the man, politically and physically, still in the belief that he is in control, at least of his image.