PARIS - As if the life of Nicolas Sarkozy has not produced enough melodrama - especially with rumors now that his third wife, Carla Bruni- Sarkozy, may be pregnant - French moviemakers have produced a semifictional drama, called “La Conquete,” or “The Conquest,” that purports to depict his rise to power.

“The story of a man who wins power and loses his wife” is the tag line, a neat summary of the relentless Mr. Sarkozy’s 2007 campaign to succeed Jacques Chirac even as his second wife, Cecilia, falls in love with another man but returns to pretend all is normal until the final vote is cast - and then disappears.

The models for the film, said the producer, Eric Altmayer, were Anglo- Saxon - “The Candidate,” “Bob Roberts,” “All the President’s Men,” “Primary Colors” and, of course, “The Queen.”

The tale is meant to be Shakespearean, a drama of flawed, ambitious men and romantic, calculating women, a delineation behind the curtains of political scheming, betrayal and the price of power. But it is also the story of a serving president, a sharp break with French tradition.

The director, Xavier Durringer, has worked hard for verisimilitude, he insists, not for caricature or satire.

“It’s not a political film, but it’s about politics,” Mr. Durringer said. “It’s not a film about Sarkozy himself, but about the conquest of power.”

“La Conquete” was to open this month at the Cannes Film Festival, as well as nationally in France and in Greece. No copies were released to critics or to Mr. Sarkozy.

Film is important to Mr. Sarkozy, who likes to tell visitors about the great classics he has seen, as well as the books he has read. He told one group that he and Ms. Bruni-Sarkozy watched 150 movies a year.

He is particularly fond of American films, personally pinning a high rank of the Legion of Honor on Clint Eastwood.

Mr. Sarkozy may not like this film, however. The poster shows a besuited figure, cut off at the shoulders, sitting on a very high stool, his little legs dangling.

The actor who plays him, Denis Podalydes, wears a curly wig, but otherwise impersonates Mr. Sarkozy through his twitches, mannerisms and gestures. The actor had a meeting with the president, who told him, “I don’t like power, but I like exercising it.”

The trailer shows one scene of Mr. Sarkozy storming out of a meeting saying: “I’m a Ferrari. You open the hood with white gloves on.” Another character calls him mad, and the actor playing Mr. Chirac pretends to shoot him with an imaginary rifle.

Pierre Charon, a former press adviser to Mr. Sarkozy, said, “What we have seen, we do not like at all.” Even Dominique de Villepin, Mr. Chirac’s favorite and Mr. Sarkozy’s rival for the 2007 nomination, dismisses the film.

Mr. Sarkozy said in an interview that he would not see the film, in part out of respect for his current wife and in part “to protect my mental health,” he said. He added, apparently with no irony, that “too much narcissism makes you crazy.”


By STEVEN ERLANGER