The Last Mitterrand(Movie, 2004)

The Last Mitterrand (French title: Le Promeneur du Champ de Mars) is a 2005 film directed by Robert Guédiguian depicting the final period in the life of an unnamed French President (but the English title suggests the president is François Mitterrand). The film is based on the book Le Dernier Mitterrand by Georges-Marc Benamou. Benamou had talked with and accompanied Mitterrand for the last 1,000 days of his presidency.Benamou worked for a small circulation magazine called Globe - a magazine for champagne socialists- la gauche caviar in the French idiom. It is not clear why Mitterrand chose Benamou but the journalist has said they got on well and discussed life, women and literature. When the resulting book appeared in 1997 however, Benamou was turned upon by many of Mitterrand's family and associates - even Pierre Bergé, who financed the Globe magazine called it a work of "absolute treachery" - and they would not help with the film. It seems they were particularly outraged not by revelations about Mitterrand's private life,-Mitterrand had a secret second family including the daughter he kept hidden from the public- or anything to do with Vichy, but with a description of Mitterrand... ()