Over five million viewers for the diptych dedicated to Charles de Gaulle

June 1940. A colonel without troops, without a mandate, without the slightest title authorizing him to speak on behalf of France, chooses to do so anyway. He has only a conviction and a voice. The official country, meanwhile, has already signed the armistice.

This moment shatters a persistent misconception: the idea that legitimacy must precede action. Here, it is the opposite. It arises from the June 18th call and will take months to be confirmed by facts. This is the position of every leader who, initially alone, carries out a reorganization that the board of directors has not yet fully approved: authority does not precede the decision; it is built through the consistency of upholding it.

The film also candidly shows the loneliness. For months, De Gaulle maintains a stance that the facts contradict: London doubts, Washington despises him, and part of the French army considers him a deserter. This experience is shared by every leader carrying an unpopular decision: that moment when they must stand by it alone before the organization either embraces or rejects it.

Then there is the way in which, starting in 1943, De Gaulle unites forces with no hierarchical connection: resistance networks, rival movements, hostile allies. He does not command them. He offers them a narrative strong enough for them to choose to rally behind it. This is the situation of many organizations today—matrix-based, born from mergers, scattered across multiple sites: the power to order is receding, and the ability to provide meaning becomes the rarest resource.

There remains an even rarer trait: patience. The title of the second part, J'écris ton nom (I Write Your Name), borrowed from Éluard, speaks to the long timeframe of leadership, the one written before the facts prove it right. Nothing between 1940 and 1944 resembles a straight line validated step by step. This is precisely what our organizations, caught in the quarterly rhythm, are increasingly unable to do.

This diptych does not tell the story of a superhuman. It tells the story of a man whose greatness arises from everything that, on paper, should have disqualified him. Leadership is not confirmed by appointment; it is built, proof after proof, through what one chooses to uphold when nothing obliges them to do so.

So, as this new school year begins, perhaps one question deserves to rise to the top of the list: what is an attitude courageous enough to deserve leadership?