1958: Those Who Said No

Name: 1958: Those Who Said No
Director: Philippe Saada
Genre: Documentary, TV Movie, History
Released: 2018
Rating: 8
Cast: Philippe Saada, Pierre Pflimlin, Raoul Salan, Jacques Massu, Pierre Joxe

8/10

2018

0h 55m

Documentary

TV Movie

History

Overview

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.