The Conquest

Released Nov 11, 2011

1h 45m

Comedy

Drama

List

79%

Tomatometer

33 Reviews

50%

Audience Score

500+ Ratings

Nicolas Sarkozy (Denis Podalydès) deals with marital problems while trying to become president of France.

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Critics Consensus

The Conquest commendably dramatizes French President Nicholas Sarkozy's rise to power, with a persuasive ensemble and a politically astute script handsomely compensating for a generic visual presentation.

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Stanley Kauffmann

The New Republic

The Sarkozy story glistens, snakelike.

Jun 19, 2013

Full Review

Jon Frosch

The Atlantic

The dialogue is punchy, but the film lacks visual personality, and the insights into Sarkozy and France as a whole don't cut very deep.

Mar 7, 2012

Full Review

Joe Williams

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"The Conquest" is like a French restaurant that serves small portions of tart appetizers and calls them freedom fries, yet begrudgingly we must salute the gall.

Rated: 2.5/4

Feb 24, 2012

Full Review

Diego Batlle

Otroscines.com

Even though this is a politically correct film, it still calls it out like it is without half measures. [Full review in Spanish]

Rated: 6/10

Oct 4, 2022

Full Review

Jack Fleischer

Battleship Pretension

The Conquest carries strong themes of compromise in politics, compromise in love, and asks its characters to weigh the value of all this compromise.

Mar 24, 2021

Full Review

Kelly Jane Torrance

Washington Examiner

And so The Conquest promises a juicy behind-the-scenes look at the rise of this somehow seductive little man, but doesn't quite deliver.

Rated: 2.5/4

Jan 4, 2019

Full Review

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Audience Member

Really Brilliant, realistic and documented « view from the inside » great actors too

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/15/23

Full Review

Audience Member

good political drama

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/21/23

Full Review

Audience Member

I kept waiting and waiting for "The Conquest" to become the film I had hoped it would be- an off-the-cuff, hard-hitting contemporary political docudrama that paints a portrait of an intriguing candidate, and a marriage that would done-in by his and her ambitions. Indeed, it did show signs of promise, and the cast is top-notch. Unfortunately, "The Conquest" is undone by poor pacing, and it's 1 hour and 45 minutes feels more like 3 hours.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/05/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Fabulous French film that follows the rise of Nicolas Sarkozy from backbencher to President of France, and the dissolution of his marriage to second wife Cecillia that unravels just as his campaign reaches its zenith. There's also great fun in the exploration of the relationship between Sarkozy and his rival Dominique de Villepin and then President Jacques Chirac.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/08/23

Full Review

walter m

As Nicholas Sarkozy(Denis Podalydes) wakes up on election day in 2007, it starts out well enough as he wins the vote in New York and Israel. But he is still worrying about the whereabouts of his wife Cecilia(Florence Pernel) and more importantly whether or not she will be voting with him. However, that is nothing compared to five years previously when President Jacques Chirac(Bernard Le Coq), feeling Sarkozy would only lose in a national election due to his conservative politics, chooses Dominique de Villepin(Samuel Labarthe) to be Prime Minister, leaving the Ministry of Interior to Sarkozy. "The Conquest" seeks to dramatize Sarkozy's rise to power by also undermining him by showing that the only way he got elected was in the media's preference of personality over policy. While possibly not wrong, it is a neat trick that the movie never quite pulls off, as it also falls into the same trap by mostly avoiding politics except by mentioning Sarkozy is pro-American.(Which I guess might be the same as being pro-French here in the States, I suppose.) As far as being satire, not much, except for the jaunty soundtrack and one masterful shot that starts with Sarkozy eating alone, before panning to the press who then rush off to cover Villepin on the beach. The only irony comes when Chirac says the socialists will never win an election in France. Who knew? Plus, Podalydes gives one of those performances usually seen on Saturday Night Live where a performer does an impression by picking on a singular personal tic and then hammering it into the bedrock.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

TrÃ¨s intÃ©ressant et super bien jouÃ©.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/27/23

Full Review

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Xavier Durringer

Director

Denis Podalydès

Nicolas Sarkozy

Florence Pernel

Cécilia Sarkozy

Bernard Le Coq

Jacques Chirac

Hippolyte Girardot

Claude Guéant

Samuel Labarthe

Dominique de Villepin

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Synopsis

Nicolas Sarkozy (Denis Podalydès) deals with marital problems while trying to become president of France.

Director: Xavier Durringer
Screenwriter: Patrick Rotman, Xavier Durringer
Distributor: Music Box Films
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Original Language: French (France)
Release Date (Theaters): Nov 11, 2011, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Aug 10, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA): $73.9K
Runtime: 1h 45m
Aspect Ratio: Scope (2.35:1)

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