The true and particular story is how a Danish architect won against all odds the competition to create one of the most ambitious works of the presidency of the socialist with grandeur François Mitterand. The Stranger of the Grand Arch is a fun tale about the clash between ideas and real politics, arriving in theaters on January 1st.
A monument is forever. The etymology says it and it is confirmed by the history of many men of power, due to private wealth or public role in particular, who have obsessively built to maintain over generations, some over centuries, some delirious with the hope of a thousand-year Reich, their magnificence through a large palace, a museum, or perhaps a triumphal arch. Even before Trump, someone already wanted to take inspiration from the Parisian Arc de Triompheat the end of the Champs-Élysées, in Place Charles de Gaulle. Yes, even a street is a monument to grandeur. That person was the most monarchist of socialist leaders, François Mitterrandthe first president – for two terms – of that party in the Fifth Republic, created semi-presidential by that De Gaulle mentioned above.
Like many heads of state, Mitterrand had a great passion for architectureand in 1982 he held an anonymous competition for the design and construction of a emblematic building in the axis of the Louvre and the Arc de Triomphe. To everyone’s great surprise, the winner was a 53-year-old Danish architect, totally unknown in France, and far from the political and cultural intrigues of that country. From one day to the next, Johan Oto Sguckelsen jurys as an alien the Parigcatapulted to the helm of the largest construction site of the time, soon grappling with the complexities of the real feasibility of an ideal, that of his ambitious project. Politics is complex, especially at those highest levels, ballerina and moody, and the alien from the far north understood this early, at his expense.
Read also The review of The Stranger of the Grand Arc
This story is told in a successful adaptation by Stéphane Demoustier, The Stranger of the Great Arch“inspired by real events that occurred between 1983 and 1987. The scenes of private life and dialogues are fictional.” Outgoing in theaters January 1stdistributed by Movies Inspiredis based on the novel “The Great Arch“by Laurence Cosse. They are protagonists Claes Bang, Sidse Babett Knudsenand irresistible Xavier Dolan as an advisor to the President, played by Michel Fau.
