All true French leaders boast of their cultured side: Jacques Chirac loves African artefacts, Georges Pompidou adored modern art and Charles de Gaulle devoured the classics. But the centre-right presidential candidate, Nicolas Sarkozy, despite his devotion to chanson francaise and his friendship with the ageing rock star Johnny Hallyday, has seen the need to boost his literary credentials.
In a theatrical coup, he has allowed Yasmina Reza, France’s biggest commercial playwright, to follow his every move in order to write a portrait of his ‘existential” inner being. Reza, whose hit play Art took £140-million at box offices worldwide, has been given unprecedented access to his daily life.
Sarkozy, who has wanted to be president since he was 15, has already inspired a bestselling 150-page comic book and numerous biographies dissecting his ruthless ambition, said to be spurred on by his diminutive height, unhappy childhood, immigrant origins and close relationship to his mother.
Reza said: ‘I wanted to write about the existential dimension of a politician … Shakespeare had dealt with the question on stage. A novel didn’t interest me, so I thought about creating a portrait … Nicolas Sarkozy, whom I had never met, was the obvious choice.” She told Le Point magazine she was interested in issues such as ‘crazy desire, solitude and the idea of destiny”. When she suggested the project to Sarkozy, he immediately accepted.
Although the interior minister has dominated celebrity gossip magazines in the company of stars such as the Hollywood actor Jean Reno, he is keen to win over Paris’s intellectual circles. Asked about his reading habits, he repeatedly quotes the same two books, Louis-Ferdinand Celine’s Journey to the End of the Night and Albert Cohen’s Belle du Seigneur.
Reza’s work on Sarkozy will be published in September, four months after the election that will see him either president of France or in the political wilderness. He will be hoping the work does not share the title of another successful play by Reza, Conversations After a Funeral. —