The Tiger and the President: The Crazy Story of an (Almost) Forgotten President. Where is the true and false in the film? A lot of fiction or movies just based on true events?
1920, roaring twenties. Georges Clemenceau has just lost the presidential election to the unknown Paul Deschanel, an idealist who wants to change the country. But one evening the latter falls from the train and disappears. In the morning, France is looking for its president, a golden opportunity for Tiger Clemenceau…
It’s the comedy The Tiger and the President, which hits theaters this Wednesday. This historical film is based on real events, around two figures of the Third Republic, Georges Clemenceau (Tiger) and Paul Deschanel (President). But is this film essentially based on proven facts or rather loosely inspired by historical facts? Responsive elements!
Three biographies were devoted to Paul Deschanel. To prepare the film, the director and screenwriter mainly relied on what Thierry Billard wrote in the 80s, because “He appreciated it, unlike those of the 1930s who criticized itThe Director has also obtained the entirety of his speeches, which amount to almost six thousand pages, and listened to digital recordings of his speeches at the BNF. Therefore, a huge work of documentation was created for the first time.
Most of the facts reported in the film are true and proven
Nevertheless, from the very first images of the film, the audience is warned that the film takes its share of liberties. As director Jean-Marc Peirefit, whose first feature film, points out, “We wrote, from the opening sentence, that we were “inspired by real facts” and that we invented (“imagined”) some of them. It’s telling how much we assume the fact that it’s fiction…“
“Most of the facts reported in the film are true and proven, and it is Paul Deschanel’s ideas, which seem dreamy but are all authentic, that inspired him.” He continues to attend the film’s press conference.
So where does the fictional part of the film lie? “We brought fictional elements into this story, specifically to enhance the rivalry between the two characters. On the one hand, Deschanel did not experience, strictly speaking, a “state of grace”: he, immediately after the election, plunged into anxiety and drugs. Thus, the cabinet scene where he authoritatively dismisses a member of his government and forces Millerand to bow is purely fictitious. On the other hand, the scene where Clemenceau advises Germaine Deschanel in Verona is completely fictional, Clemenceau didn’t blame the “Bolsheviks” for ousting Deschanel (even though he blamed them for all the evil on earth) and went with it. United States after the election of Millerand.”
Leave room for comedy
The character played by Anna Mughallis is fictional. “It so happened that Deschanel and Clemenceau often went to the same salon, which allowed us to create a prostitute played by Anna Mughallis, who became the confidant of the pillow of suffering of the two characters, like an oracle who knows people. and with whom two men come to consult in the common pursuit of public opinion“.
In order to give pride of place to comedy and entertainment, the screenwriters did not hesitate to highlight a whimsical part of certain facts: “I relied on a thesis by the psychiatrist Gérard Milleret, which supports what no biography has said about Paul Deschanel: he took Veronal, the first barbiturate molecule recommended to him after his election, but which was banned six months later. According to Dr. Milleret, the drug gave him “ Confuso-oneiric awakenings – in other words, sleepwalking – and so he would be in an advanced state of sleepwalking when he got off the train. Others talk about an accident, or even a suicide attempt. The more I looked, the more I came across a multitude of hypotheses, which proved to me that a somewhat esoteric relationship with this character was necessary.” We learn from the director.
The film chooses the life of the president to tell the incredible and extraordinary side of certain episodes of his life. Inspired by real facts, but with romance and fantasy.
The Tiger and the President, co-written by Jean-Marc Peirefit and Marc Sirigas, is Jean-Marc Peirefit’s first feature film, currently in theaters.
Source: allocine
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