1958: Those Who Said No (2018)

1958: Those Who Said No

2018

Documentary TV Movie History

Synopsis

On October 4, 2018, France celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Fifth Republic. It is a republic born in the throes of the Algerian War and one which—from the day it was founded by General de Gaulle until the presidency of a very Jupiterian Emmanuel Macron—has been assailed as a “Republican monarchy” by partisans of a more assertive parliamentarian state. By revisiting the struggle of those who dared oppose the new regime — only to suffer a crushing defeat on September 28, 1958, when they were barely able to garner 20% of the vote against the constitutional text — this film shines a powerful new light on the origins of the Fifth Republic and its consequences for the next 60 years. It is a constitutional debate that planted the seeds for a complete upheaval of the French political landscape, on the left in particular, and set the country in motion toward what would be called the Union of the Left.

Credits

Director

Philippe Saada

Cast

Charles de Gaulle as Self (archive footage)

Charles Hernu as Self (archive footage)

Édouard Daladier as Self (archive footage)

Jacques Massu as Self (archive footage)

Jean-François Sirinelli as Self

Philippe Saada as Narrator (voice)

Pierre Joxe as Self

Pierre Mendès France as Self (archive footage)