‘Hugely embarrassing’ film on Sarkozy to show rise to power, divorce

LONDON - A new ‘hugely embarrassing’ film will depict French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s life, right from his rise to power to the day his previous wife left him.

Called ‘The Conquest’, the film is written by historian and screenwriter Patrick Rotman and is the first ever movie about a French president and will portray his rise to power in the five years before he was elected in 2007.

It begins with Sarkozy waking up alone at a hotel on the Champs-Elysees after celebrating his election victory, following which, he is shown spending his first day as President searching in vain for the wife he married in 1996, a former top model and mother of his youngest son Louis, 13.

A scene set on the previous evening later shows him pleading with Cecilia who famously refused to vote for him, to attend the celebrations.

“I’m waiting for you at the Place de la Concorde. You have to come,” the Daily Mail quoted him as telling her.

And though she turns up but soon leaves alone.

The couple’s marriage came under intense media scrutiny in France when Cecilia, now 52, had an affair with American millionaire Richard Attias in 2005.

Although the two reunited, they were rarely seen together during his election campaign, and after making a brief reappearance once he became president she then told a magazine she had no wish to live in the presidential Elysee Palace.

They finally divorced in October 2007 and she set up home with Attias in New York.

Months after his second marriage broke up, Sarkozy met Carla Bruni and got married within months.

It is not known if Sarkozy has seen early rushes of the movie, but when he learned who was playing him he is said to have told aides, “That’s not right, he’s got a lot less hair than me.” (ANI)