The Minister

From the opening scene—a dream sequence involving a formal ceremony, a very nude woman and a very large crocodile—Pierre Schöller’s cutting and trenchant political drama demonstrates that it is definitely cut from a different cloth. The great Olivier Gourmet delivers a superbly controlled performance as a French departmental minister, equal parts idealist and vain opportunist, who finds that the moral compromises involved in the job have begun to destroy his own moral compass…

"Gourmet [is] Transport Minister Bertrand Saint-Jean. Expected to react to everything that falls under his jurisdiction, he is awoken in the middle of the night and told of a bus crash in the Ardennes that has taken the lives of at least nine people. He rushes to the scene, becoming the face of official mourning and compassion. He continues to adopt different public faces in a world of compromises, denials and betrayals that erodes any pretense of principle and eats away at the soul… The Minister is well-paced, hustling and bustling through events whilst deploying some jaunty stylistic touches… Schöller certainly captures the way a minister’s life is unrelenting, addictive and his or her shelf life is almost certainly short… The notion of some idealistic desire to serve the people and make a better world is foolishly naive… Gourmet is surrounded by a strong supporting ensemble with Michel Blanc investing his long serving [private secretary] Gilles with a certain weary recognition of how the world works…"—Allan Hunter, Screen