our selection which reveals 5 faces of France

4. “The Unknown of the Grande Arche”, by Stéphane Demoustier

Drama comedy, 1 hour 46 minutes. Released November 5, 2025.

In 1982, François Mitterrand launched an architectural competition for the construction of a building in the axis of the Louvre and the Arc de Triomphe. The Danish architect Johan Otto von Spreckelsen, 53, unknown in France, found himself at the head of the largest project of the time: that of the Grande Arche de la Défense.

But the creation of this monumental work encountered political obstacles and technical complexities, to the point of wearing out its designer morally and physically.

Inspired by the novel by Laurence Cossé ( The Great Arch, 2016), this film shows how a public order is also a collective adventure.

The filmmaker’s aesthetic choices (use of a photographic lens specific to the 1960s-1970s, animations of archive photographs) immerse the viewer in the France of the Mitterrand presidency which, through a program of major works, had the political project of “changing the lives” of its fellow citizens.

Our opinion: PP