The Battle of Gaulle at the cinema, the new album from Boards of Canada, a novel by Bénédicte Belpois… Madame Figaro’s culture week

De Gaulle or nothing

No less than a diptych was needed to tell the story of the most famous general in History. After co-writing Quai d’Orsay a conductor The Song of the WolfAntonin Baudry réalise The Battle of Gaulledont the first part, baptized L’Âage de ironcomes out this week, while waiting for the sequel, entitled I write your nameJuly 3. Simon Abkarian plays the liberator of France who, in the first part, fights alone against everyone: in June 1940, the country, in the hands of Pétain, signed the armistice. De Gaulle refuses to give in and escapes to London to convince the world that his homeland has not laid down its arms. Rebellious high school students and soldiers loyal to his cause rally him to reconquer the country and the territories of Africa. If certain actors are freewheeling, and certain choices of artistic direction are questionable, the bias is interesting: the film tells of General de Gaulle before the legend and humanizes him by highlighting his integrity and his unshakeable faith despite the isolation, even the humiliations. An educational tool to show to schools, the feature film selected out of competition at Cannes also offers some beautiful moments of cinema, with the Battle of Bir Hakeim in the lead. M. L. 
«The Battle of Gaulle: the Iron Age», d’Antonin Baudry, with Simon Abkarian, Benoît Magimel…

«Hell» or les échos du monde

Board of Canada is the most influential duo of their generation, that of the 1990s, in the same way as Daft Punk, cultivating just like the latter a great mystery about their lives – we know that they are brothers and live in Edinburgh, and would surf in Biarritz, and that’s about it Their new record has been awaited for thirteen years: their latest, “Tomorrow’s Harvest”, dates back to 2013, and questioned the climatic state of the world. A visionary record “Inferno” is even more powerful: we hear veiled electronic rhythms (their signature since then). their debut and the classic album “Music Has the Right to Children”), heady melodies, of disturbing beauty, played on synthesizers that are losing speed, as if on the verge of melting, and we discover many more voices (spoken, modified, tweaked, played in echo or loop) than before In this choral record, the voice samples mixed with transcendent electronic music (we sometimes think of the spiritual music of Alice Coltrane) tell the story of the contemporary world, with its obsessions with religion, wars, the presentation of oneself, millenarian evangelistism and tries to surpass it too, thanks to his dreamy compositions – here, we never feel the time passing. An invitation to slow down? A way of summoning the collective memory, of surreptitiously composing the ideal soundtrack of an era which does not know where it is going, and allows one to take refuge in a golden ether. This music is a meditation, a journey through the folds of time, but also everything inside oneself, (everything) against the times. J. G. 
“Inferno”, Warp Records.

They vibrate and captivate

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After a miserable adolescence in Ardèche with an alcoholic father, a young agricultural worker, named Morvan, decides to leave. He will form a strange trio, between friendship and love, with Monica and Giovanni met in a pizzeria, at the foot of Mont Blanc. Their team, between joy and despair, takes them to Italy and Switzerland, with experiences as opposed as an episode of homelessness or the meeting with an old Spanish duchess and peerless storyteller. The writing, fluid and generous, anchors human emotions in the landscapes crossed with great sensitivity and paints the portrait of a resilient, good and luminous young man. I. P. 
«Morvan», de Bénédicte Belpois, Éditions Gallimard, 204 p., 20 €.