From the Quai d’Orsay to Cannes: inside the head of Antonin Baudry, the director of La Bataille De Gaulle : L’Âge de fer (De Gaulle: Tilting Iron)

“Back then, I mostly worked in mathematics and went to the cinema to relax. Today, it’s the reverse.” Before Antonin Baudry became a director, he had already lived several lives.  

École polytechnique, then the École Normale Supérieure (ENS); on paper, everything seemed to point him toward the highest echelons of the French government rather than film sets. “The filmmakers I admired had already lived through a lot. They had a connection to the world. I didn’t want to just walk out of school and start making films.” So he lived his life to the fullest. He became a diplomat, worked in French embassies, and joined Dominique de Villepin at the Quai d’Orsay and later at Matignon. He spent several years observing how power works from the inside. “When you see places like that up close, you realize that anything can happen behind an office door.” 

He gradually moved closer to the world of cinema. Using the pseudonym Abel Lanzac, he wrote the comic book Quai d’Orsay with Christophe Blain, inspired by his experience as a diplomat during the Iraq War. Then Bertrand Tavernier wanted to adapt it. “Bertrand took me under his wing a little”, he says, clearly moved. It’s clear that this encounter meant a lot to him. Perhaps it even made cinema suddenly possible for Antonin Baudry.

He directed his first film Le Chant du loup (The Wolf’s Call) in 2019. Today he is presenting La Bataille De Gaulle : l’Âge de fer (De Gaulle: Tilting Iron) at Cannes. 

The idea for the film originated during a lunch with producer Jérôme Seydoux. Both men were reading the same book: A Certain Idea of France: The Life of Charles de Gaulle, by Julian Jackson. What if they were to adapt it? 

It is not the historical narrative that interested Antonin Baudry. “In 1940, De Gaulle was a total unknown. Everyone took him for a crazy person, but nonetheless, he refused to give up.” Through his eyes, De Gaulle almost becomes a character from a chivalric novel — a figure who continues against all odds and who will eventually come to represent an entire country. There are references to Don Quixote throughout the entire film. “It’s not just a nod to it”, he insists. “The thing that interested me was the idea of a man who refuses to give up even when everything seems hopeless.” 

He worked more than five years on La Bataille De Gaulle (made up of l’âge de fer (Tilting Iron) and J’écris ton nom (The Sovereign Edge)). It’s a huge project: two films, two separate films, two different composers, and over 150 characters… Despite the breadth of the project, the director speaks above all of his passion.  “I never commit to a project unless I have a genuine passion for it, because I know it’s going to be a long, difficult journey fraught with obstacles.”  

In the edit, archival footage is seamlessly blended with newly shot scenes, following both De Gaulle and Fernand Bonnier de La Chapelle. The characters’ paths cross without ever distracting the viewer. Humor, the absurd, and tragedy are constantly juxtaposed. “People often ask me why it’s humorous, but I didn’t add in the humor — I actually had to remove it,” the director adds. Behind this historical backdrop, what stands out most is a very topical issue: the fragile nature of democracies. 

And how does the Festival de Cannes fit into all that? 

“I must admit that I dreamt of it. If I carry on talking about it, I’m going to end up in tears”.