If he didn’t get a prize in the end, The Apprentice was in competition at the last Cannes Film Festival and when it was screened in preview, no one was really expecting a hagiographic biography of the 45e president of the United States. Intuition confirmed: the film by Dane of Iranian origin Ali Abbasi paints an ironic and scathing portrait of the man who is once again a candidate for the White House this year.
The feature film which is released this Wednesday in France focuses on the journey of the real estate entrepreneur in the 1970s and 1980s in New York. And from his presentation on the Croisette, even though he had not been seen by anyone before, Trump made it known that he was very angry! Without stepping up to the plate itself.
Steven Cheung, campaign spokesperson for the Republican candidate, threatened the film with legal action. Threatened only. “ Pure fiction », « blatantly false allegations », « election interference by the Hollywood elite just before November »… And the producers to receive a letter of formal notice to block the release.
In fact, The Apprentice went for many months without the certainty of being able to appear in front of spectators in the United States. When Trump rants, America still freezes a little. Especially a few weeks before a major election, on November 5. Even one of the co-producers, Dan Snyder (who believed in a flattering portrait), turned against this biting biopic. It is ultimately the company Briarcliff Entertainment (not a Hollywood giant) which will release The Apprentice across the Atlantic, October 11.
The pamphlet states in the preamble that many of the events depicted on the screen are fictitious. But with a character as outrageous and crude as Trump, how can we tell them apart? We see him taking amphetamine pills, undergoing liposuction, and even raping his first wife Ivana, now deceased (she accused her husband of rape during the divorce proceedings before changing her accusations).
The film team stays the course in the storm. The journalist and screenwriter Gabriel Sherman, accused of “ anti-Trump dementia ”, even offered a rather unexpected justification: “ The film is not a contract on Donald Trump’s head. If you like it, you actually have a good chance of liking it “The Apprentice”. » Perhaps a bit exaggerated, but not completely unfounded. The film explains the mantra instilled by the sulphurous lawyer Roy Cohn to his “apprentice” Donald Trump: “ Attack, always deny, always claim victory. » We are indeed in real life here.
Director. Ali Abbasi. Interpreters. Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong, Maria Bakalova, Martin Donovan, Catherine McNally… Genre. Drama. Duration. 2 h. Résumé. A true dive into the mysteries of the American empire, the film traces the rise to power of the young Donald Trump thanks to a Faustian pact with the conservative lawyer and political matchmaker Roy Cohn.
