The political movie of the year tells the story of an odyssey: A grizzled war veteran in exile, desperate to return home to his family and country, leading a rump of an army through impossible odds as massacres, vengeance and mutiny rage. No, not Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, but La Bataille de Gaulle: A two-part World War II drama about Charles de Gaulle that has taken France by storm a year ahead of elections. The pair of films, clocking in at a total of 320 minutes, has sold 4 million tickets in French theaters — not far off the mighty Odyssey itself — amid a wider 20% rebound in cinema attendance. The film is now set to land in international markets, including the UK. There are many reasons for the film’s success at home, aside from it being very good; word-of-mouth support has helped, as has the heatwave pushing people into air-conditioned theaters. It also helps that the story of de Gaulle’s refusal to surrender in 1940 as the state’s military and morality collapsed is the kind of authentic display of heroism the French might be craving as they potentially sleepwal