1958: Those Who Said No

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.

Cast

Philippe Saada

Narrator (voice)

Pierre Pflimlin

Self (archive footage)

Raoul Salan

Self (archive footage)

Jacques Massu

Self (archive footage)

Pierre Joxe

Self

Jean-François Sirinelli

Self

Charles de Gaulle

Self (archive footage)

Pierre Mendès France

Self (archive footage)

Charles Hernu

Self (archive footage)

Édouard Daladier

Self (archive footage)

Anicet Le Pors

Self

François Mitterrand

Self (archive footage)