'De Gaulle' opens U.S. run with 7-minute standing ovation

Antonin Baudry’s two-part World War II epic “De Gaulle” received a standing ovation lasting seven minutes at its U.S. premiere Saturday in Los Angeles, as Samuel Goldwyn Films began its American rollout.

The American French Film Festival presented the installments consecutively before packed audiences at the DGA Theater, with each film running more than two and a half hours, Variety reported.

The €74 million production got off to a slow start in France, but word of mouth helped it sell more than six million tickets there.

Its first installment, “De Gaulle: Resistance,” currently leads this year’s U.K. box office for French-language films.

“The films have proven themselves, and audiences are audiences, whether they’re American or French,” said Peter Goldwyn of Samuel Goldwyn Films.

Simon Abkarian, who portrays De Gaulle, was less certain than Goldwyn about the American response. “I think that, from that point of view, Americans could recognize themselves in the Gaullist struggle,” he said.

Goldwyn said cinemas hesitate to commit to a wide screen count because the films are in a foreign language. “The only thing that makes it an arthouse movie is because it’s in a foreign language,” he said.

Theatrical and VOD release

Samuel Goldwyn Films is releasing the film in cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Seattle and Atlanta. Alongside the theatrical run, the film is available nationwide through transactional video on demand, or VOD.

The combined release reflects the way American cinemas operate, Goldwyn said. “Theaters in the U.S. don’t have the patience or time to let things be discovered,” he said. “It’s sort of you’re in and you’re out.”

The distributor has one campaign for both installments. It seeks arthouse audiences and history buffs, as well as schools, cultural institutions and younger viewers reached through social media.

“It’s a story of an ally,” Goldwyn said, describing De Gaulle as very patriotic and calling that a very American trait.

Goldwyn said American audiences have long responded enthusiastically to stories about Roosevelt and Churchill, while De Gaulle’s story is relatively untold in America.

Preparing to play De Gaulle

Abkarian appears opposite Simon Russell Beale as Winston Churchill and Campbell Scott as Franklin D. Roosevelt. He prepared for the role for about six months.

Abkarian said he read the screenplay over 10 times and found “nothing to change in the writing, not even a comma.”

He copied all his dialogue into a small notebook and kept it with him throughout the 150-day shoot before giving it to Baudry. His lines filled every page.

Abkarian said he gave up trying to reproduce De Gaulle’s mannerisms. “You can invoke him, evoke him, but you can’t actually become him,” he said.

One evening, he and Baudry recorded De Gaulle’s speeches together, which helped Abkarian find the voice, he said. “Between doing nothing and caricature, I had to find the right balance,” he said.

Research and screenings

Baudry and co-screenwriter Bérénice Vila consulted historical archives and read more than 150 books while researching the films. “To Roosevelt, the idea of Free France was a little fantasy of Churchill’s,” Baudry said.

Baudry said the story of how the three leaders related to one another “has never really been told” to the general public. He arranged early screenings for young students so people unfamiliar with De Gaulle could follow the films.

Light Films will release “De Gaulle” in China in late November. The second installment, “De Gaulle: Liberty,” will be released in early December.