Our review of The Tiger and the President, duel at the top

In the history books, he will go down as the “crazy president”. Paul Deschanel (1855-1922), short-lived head of the French state who fell from a train on the night of May 23 to 24, 1920, owes his posterity only to the fact that a barrier guard found him dressed in pajamas, wandering on the rails between Montbrison and Montargis. The image of Épinal has since marked the spirits. Along the way, the frail Deschanel became the most ridiculous President of the Republic in the history of France. It is to try to rehabilitate this political figure of the Crazy years that Jean-Marc Peyrefitte orchestrated his first film in the form of a light political comedy.

He embarks in his wake two high-class actors. André Dussollier embodies a Georges Clemenceau rougher than nature. All mustache out, the Tiger started out as the favorite in the 1920 presidential race. Against all odds, he came up against the triumphant idealism of an unknown, Paul Deschanel, portrayed with finesse by a Jacques Gamblin…