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The French Minister

Original title: Quai d'Orsay
  • 20132013
  • Not RatedNot Rated
  • 1h 53m
IMDb RATING
6.4/10
3.6K
YOUR RATING
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
  • IMDbPro
Julie Gayet, Thierry Lhermitte, and Raphaël Personnaz in Quai d'Orsay (2013)
Watch {VideoTitle}
Play trailer1:46
3 Videos
11 Photos
  • Comedy

A young speechwriter working in the French Foreign Ministry learns the impure nature of the political world.A young speechwriter working in the French Foreign Ministry learns the impure nature of the political world.A young speechwriter working in the French Foreign Ministry learns the impure nature of the political world.

IMDb RATING
6.4/10
3.6K
YOUR RATING
  • Director
    • Bertrand Tavernier
  • Writers
    • Antonin Baudry(comic book "Quai d'Orsay - Chroniques diplomatiques")
    • Christophe Blain(comic book "Quai d'Orsay - Chroniques diplomatiques")
    • Bertrand Tavernier
  • Stars
    • Thierry Lhermitte
    • Raphaël Personnaz
    • Niels Arestrup
Top credits
  • Director
    • Bertrand Tavernier
  • Writers
    • Antonin Baudry(comic book "Quai d'Orsay - Chroniques diplomatiques")
    • Christophe Blain(comic book "Quai d'Orsay - Chroniques diplomatiques")
    • Bertrand Tavernier
  • Stars
    • Thierry Lhermitte
    • Raphaël Personnaz
    • Niels Arestrup
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 16User reviews
    • 32Critic reviews
    • 65Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 3 wins & 10 nominations

    Videos3

    Bande-annonce [OV]
    Trailer 1:46
    Bande-annonce [OV]
    The French Minister
    Trailer 1:58
    The French Minister
    The French Minister - Official US Trailer
    Trailer 1:58
    The French Minister - Official US Trailer

    Photos11

    Raphaël Personnaz and Anaïs Demoustier in Quai d'Orsay (2013)
    Thierry Lhermitte, Raphaël Personnaz, and Bertrand Tavernier in Quai d'Orsay (2013)
    Julie Gayet and Raphaël Personnaz in Quai d'Orsay (2013)
    Thierry Lhermitte and Raphaël Personnaz in Quai d'Orsay (2013)
    Thierry Lhermitte in Quai d'Orsay (2013)
    Quai d'Orsay (2013)
    Quai d'Orsay (2013)
    Raphaël Personnaz and Anaïs Demoustier in Quai d'Orsay (2013)
    Thierry Lhermitte and Joe Tribble in Quai d'Orsay (2013)
    Joe Tribble with Director Bertrand Tavernier

    Top cast

    Edit
    Thierry Lhermitte
    Thierry Lhermitte
    • Alexandre Taillard de Wormsas Alexandre Taillard de Worms
    Raphaël Personnaz
    Raphaël Personnaz
    • Arthur Vlaminckas Arthur Vlaminck
    Niels Arestrup
    Niels Arestrup
    • Claude Maupasas Claude Maupas
    Bruno Raffaelli
    • Stéphane Cahutas Stéphane Cahut
    Julie Gayet
    Julie Gayet
    • Valérie Dumontheilas Valérie Dumontheil
    Anaïs Demoustier
    Anaïs Demoustier
    • Marinaas Marina
    Thomas Chabrol
    Thomas Chabrol
    • Sylvain Marquetas Sylvain Marquet
    Thierry Frémont
    Thierry Frémont
    • Guillaume Van Effentemas Guillaume Van Effentem
    Alix Poisson
    • Odileas Odile
    Marie Bunel
    Marie Bunel
    • Martineas Martine
    Jean-Marc Roulot
    • Bertrand Castelaas Bertrand Castela
    Sonia Rolland
    Sonia Rolland
    • Nathalieas Nathalie
    Didier Bezace
    • Jean-Paul Françoisas Jean-Paul François
    Jane Birkin
    Jane Birkin
    • Molly Hutchinsonas Molly Hutchinson
    Renaud Calvet
    • Ambassadeur France à l'ONUas Ambassadeur France à l'ONU
    Benoît Carré
    • Numéro 2 Ambassade Franceas Numéro 2 Ambassade France
    François Perrot
    François Perrot
    • Antoine Taillardas Antoine Taillard
    Michel B. Dupérial
    • L'huissieras L'huissier
    • Director
      • Bertrand Tavernier
    • Writers
      • Antonin Baudry(comic book "Quai d'Orsay - Chroniques diplomatiques")
      • Christophe Blain(comic book "Quai d'Orsay - Chroniques diplomatiques")
      • Bertrand Tavernier
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
    • All cast & crew

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    Storyline

    Edit
    Alexandre Taillard de Vorms is tall and impressive, a man with style, attractive to women. He also happens to be the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the land of enlightenment: France. With his silver mane and tanned, athletic body, he stalks the world stage, from the floor of the United Nations in New York to the powder keg of Oubanga. There, he calls on the powerful and invokes the mighty to bring peace, to calm the trigger-happy, and to cement his aura of Nobel Peace Prize winner-in-waiting. Alexandre Taillard de Vorms is a force to be reckoned with, waging his own war backed up by the holy trinity of diplomatic concepts: legitimacy, lucidity and efficacy. He takes on American neo-cons, corrupt Russians and money-grabbing Chinese. Perhaps the world doesn't deserve France's magnanimousness, but his art would be wasted if just restricted to home turf. Enter the young Arthur Vlaminck, graduate of the elite National School of Administration, who is hired as head of "language" at the foreign ministry. In other words, he is to write the minister's speeches. But he also has to learn to deal with the sensibilities of the boss and his entourage, and find his way between the private secretary and the special advisers who stalk the corridors of the Quai d'Orsay - the ministry's home - where stress, ambition and dirty dealing are the daily currency. But just as he thinks he can influence the fate of the world, everything seems threatened by the inertia of the technocrats. —Sundance Selects
    • france
    • fictitious country
    • reference to tintin
    • foreign affairs
    • language
    • 44 more
    • Plot summary
    • Add synopsis
    • Genre
      • Comedy
    • Certificate
      • Not Rated
    • Parents guide

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      The character played by Sonia Rolland is nicknamed "Miss Angoulême". Actually, Sonia Rolland has been Miss Bourgogne in 1999, then Miss France in 2000.
    • Quotes

      Alexandre Taillard de Worms: There are three principles. Responsibility. Effiiciency. Unity.

    • Crazy credits
      At the very end of the end credits, the following sentence appears: "Aucune porte du Quai d'Orsay n'a été blessée ni maltraitée lors du tournage." which could be translated: "No doors of the Quai d'Orsay were harmed or mistreated in the making of this film."
    • Soundtracks
      Arrow in the Wall
      Music by Bertrand Burgalat and lyrics by April March

      Performed by Joël Daydé (vocals) and April March (vocals), Hervé Boutard (Drum), Stéphane Salvi (Guitar)

      (P) & © 2013 Tricatel

    User reviews16

    Review
    Top review
    7/10
    Merriment without laughter, wit without guffaws
    It is odd how the French talent for satire can sometimes give rise to no actual laughter. This film is one of those strange examples. The original French title is QUAI D'ORSAY, and for those who are unfamiliar with the meaning of that, it does not refer to the Musée d'Orsay so dear to all art lovers (which is inside a converted former railway station on the Quai d'Orsay beside the Seine) but to the French Foreign Ministry. Because of its address, the Foreign Ministry has throughout the whole of modern times been referred to by the French as well as all foreign diplomats simply as the 'Quai d'Orsay'. This film is a wildly satirical spoof on the lunacy that the French imagine (and who can say they are wrong?) takes place inside their Foreign Ministry. The Foreign Minister is played with rampant satirical flair and panache by Thierry Lhermitte. He portrays the Foreign Minister as a charming lunatic who constantly contradicts himself, and never, never, never stops talking. He is constantly quoting the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus (whose work survives only in fragments, many of which make great quotes), but rarely with relevance. The comedy is enhanced by the film containing many inserted full screen cards giving spoof quotations from Heraclitus which are, of course, nonsensical. If only this film showed the subtlety of satire at which the British excel, but it is too 'in your face' and slapstick. They are just trying too hard to be funny, and although they certainly succeed at being most amusing, I did not laugh once, whereas at a British film of that type I would undoubtedly have laughed often. (As for the Americans, they have never heard of subtlety in satire, and true satire is largely unknown to Hollywood, and is better found in a performance by the Second City group, who have never made it to the screen and remain firmly onstage as satirists.) The finest performance in this film is certainly by the wonderful Niels Arestrup, who despite his Danish name (his father was from Denmark) is as French as they come. He calmly runs the Foreign Ministry and deals with the continually recurring international emergencies amidst all the chaos around him, while his incompetent minister and the other hopeless staff run around in circles like mad dogs. No one ever notices that he is doing this. Let us hope that there is at least one Niels Arestrup in every French Government ministry, for otherwise the country could collapse under the weight of its collective political idiocy. And speaking of idiots, lest we forget the current President Hollande, his girl friend Julie Gayet appears in this film as one of the Foreign Ministry staff, though she makes no big impression. But then perhaps that is because I do not have a motor bike and have never learned her finer points. (Now that is subtle satire for you!) The omnipresent Jane Birkin has a good cameo in this film as a Nobel Prize-winning authoress whom the Minister wishes to meet and takes to lunch but talks so much himself that she does not get a word in. And for Jane not to get a word in is something! Hardly likely in real life. The director of this confection is the distinguished and well known Bertrand Tavernier. I wonder whether the French themselves laughed out loud at this film, and that my own laughless and wholly silent appreciation of it was merely a cultural artefact. Do I lack a Gallic organ? Such thoughts haunt me at nights.
    helpful•6
    6
    • robert-temple-1
    • Apr 29, 2015

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • November 6, 2013 (France)
    • Country of origin
      • France
    • Language
      • French
    • Also known as
      • Quai d'Orsay
    • Filming locations
      • Ministère des Affaires Etrangères - 37 Quai d'Orsay, Paris 7, Paris, France
    • Production companies
      • Little Bear
      • Pathé
      • France 2 Cinéma
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $12,027
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $3,800
      • Mar 23, 2014
    • Gross worldwide
      • $5,586,646
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 53 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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    Mar 25The Guardian - Film News

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    Julie Gayet, Thierry Lhermitte, and Raphaël Personnaz in Quai d'Orsay (2013)
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