Quai d'Orsay …
(BRUXELLES2) Bertrand Tavernier's film "Quai d'Orsay" based on the comic strip of the same name was released on the web and is a must-see (if you haven't seen it already).
Don't listen to the somewhat jaded critics who will quirkily explain that it's "all the same not as good as comics, it's grotesque" etc... "Quai d'Orsay" is an entertainment film. But also a slice of life of French diplomacy. Between the caricature, there is a lot of truth there.
Small cabinet turpitudes, big politics, the realities said between 2 corners of the door, NATO, arms dealers, Europe... Everything goes there. Those who know a little behind the scenes will laugh twice. As for the others, you will be able to discover an active diplomacy, "which works and is effective" (*) as explained by the director, Bertrand Tavernier, on various media. We must also remember - beyond the picturesque - History with a capital H. With his intransigent positions, Chirac then De Villepin, avoided France (and Germany) a bloody war, that of Iraq , which has not finished leaving consequences and will undoubtedly prove to be one of the most disastrous strategic errors of America and the United Kingdom at the beginning of the century for which we have not yet finished paying the price. .
How do you recognize a true diplomat?
To whoever manages to place this joke in a conversation: "NATO suspend your flight" or "NATO Takes the Wind". It is almost an obligation in the office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs. And the young diplomat Vlaminck will have the proof very quickly. The minister using the formula himself.
NATO ... I will die before
NATO the minister has it across. “The enemy in politics as in literature is the logic of the weak, the logic of NATO. Even in Türkiye. » Adding during a dinner: “I will die of NATO before I understand what it is for. Besides, I will not go to Geneva. (No question) of gorging my slack to talk about the war on terrorism”.
Merchant of arms or dildos...
Taillard de Vorms converted into a French VRP addressing a prince from a Gulf country: " You know our radars are the best. Your kingdom would benefit greatly from having French expertise. Your region cannot remain dependent on the United States. » Before changing his mind, turning to his collaborators in an access of franchise. " I drill my ass to advance peace and you make me sell guns like ties or dildos. »
Danish, Slovenian and Croatian
A meeting with the Danish Foreign Minister? " Aaah damn the Dane, I have to treat the Dane! But what bullshit this job. In addition each time he tumbles by bike. I have nothing to say to him" (...) " Yesterday I had the Slovenian” pffft. A lunch with the Croatian minister canceled..." Aaah cancel the Croatian, I see that you take me by the feelings. »
Germany in the Security Council and European fry
Claude Maupas (the excellent Niels Arestrup alias Pierre Vimont) always tries gently to thwart the whims of the chef and put him back on the right track. By trying to put it back on the real issues... in particular Germany's right to vote in the Security Council which comes up like a leitmotif. But Taillard de Vorms shies away: Anyway, what counts today is the Middle East, so the Americans. Ditch your European frying. It has neither head nor tail."
Europe: a vision and symbols...
“Europe? It shouldn't be those sordid calculations of loan sharks, board shenanigans and endless technocratic talk about the size of baby fish and raw milk cheese. Europe must be a vision and symbols. »
Conflicts in spades
Gently, Claude Maupas tries to make his way through the chaos of the cabinet "Friends if you don't do anything for the next hour, I need a little bit of concentration. And in the meantime you will be able to move forward on all the pending files (...): the conflict of the Great Lakes, the West Bank, the tuna fishermen in the Seychelles, the Anchovy war in Spain... and if someone could s take care of the Maronite patriarch for an hour..."...
Any resemblance to an existing situation is of course entirely coincidental 🙂
Trailer
Post Scriptum : Diplomats who work
(*) To those who doubt it... it's not a facade. Tavernier is right! In a few years, I have met these diplomats (these members of the cabinet or these soldiers), both passionate, with a biting irony but devoted to the general interest and fine connoisseurs of their files. They are more numerous than one might imagine. And always fascinating even if we may not always share their vision.
7 years ago ...
Even before this blog was born, I was an eyewitness. On the occasion of the disappearance of a loved one, on the other side of the world, in complex circumstances, I was able to quickly measure the reality of a machine, run in, formidably efficient but which kept, despite everything, a certain human density at all times. These are the moments, these short or long discussions with diplomats/soldiers of all levels, by telephone at an advanced hour of the night, at the Quai d'Orsay or at the Elysée, in the early morning in a corridor of Roissy, on the tarmac at Istres, before a C135 took off, which made me see a reality that I didn't really know, in fact. Discretion does not harm efficiency, and realism does not prevent a certain humanity and solidarity. They have gone to the 4 corners of the world today: in the Sahel, in Georgia, in the Gulf, in Kenya, at the Dicod or... in Brussels. It is perhaps thanks to them that this blog was born in a way. They probably don't really know. May they be today, doubly thanked...
