— Clemenceau, the Power of Love
This film tells the story of love at first sight between Georges Clemenceau, who left political life three years earlier, and Marguerite, an editor, 40 years his junior. Their love story, during which they exchanged more than 700 letters, written with beating hearts, did not end until Clemenceau died, after four years of passion.
Marguerite, married and mother, remained inconsolable over the death of her daughter. The pact that Clemenceau offers her, “I will help you live, you will help me die”, goes beyond time and death. It seals their relationship in a whirlwind of vital energy, joys, and tenderness.
Nothing predestined them to get along. The former President of the Council and Minister of War has lost none of his flamboyance or his pride. He is as angry and tempestuous as she is discreet and reserved. This romantic relationship will give Marguerite a taste for existence, while rekindling in Clemenceau the flame of old battles. Through their story, it is his friendships, like with Claude Monet, his public enemies, like Briand and Poincaré, but also the entire period between the two wars which comes back to life.
Filmed in the very places where it took place, from the coast of Vendée to the heart of Paris, via the gardens of Giverny, this story excites us with its intensity and emotion.
With:
Pierre Arditi (Georges Clemenceau), Émilie Caen (Marguerite Baldensperger),
Elizabeth Bourgine (Madeleine Clemenceau Jacquemaire), François Marthouret (Claude Monet), and Serge Riaboukine (in the rôle of Aristide Briand)…
A 90min film
Based on Nathalie Saint-Cricq’s « Je vous aiderai à vivre, vous m’aiderez à mourir »
Published by Éditions de l’Observatoire
Directed by Lorraine Lévy
Written by Jacques Santamaria and Nathalie Saint-Cricq
produced by Simone Harari Baulieu