La maîtresse du président

Marguerite Steinheil moves through Paris high society, catching the eye of President Félix Faure, who becomes obsessed with her. Their romance upends her comfortable life, and shock follows when the president dies while in her presence. Suddenly she faces public outrage, legal accusations, and an unforgiving press that treats her as the central figure in a national scandal. Accusations mount, investigators probe her past, and the press turns her life into nonstop public spectacle. The film stays close to her perspective, showing how gossip, politics, and gender expectations shape a woman trying to preserve her name, while friends and family reassess loyalties and the personal cost of public scandal and legacy. It resists easy answers and leaves several questions open.

Directed by Jean-Pierre Sinapi and released in 2009, the film adapts material from writers Valérie Bonnier and Martine Moriconi, with Cristiana Réali starring as Marguerite. The cast also includes Didier Bezace, Serge Riaboukine, Canis Crevillen, and Chantal Neuwirth, period detail.

It received a limited theatrical release, with distribution mainly domestic, outside France. Box office figures are not widely reported, and the film saw only modest theatrical exposure, appearing primarily in select venues and specialist screenings for niche audiences in France.

As a dramatization of a notorious Belle Epoque scandal, the movie revisits a well known episode in French history, bringing Marguerite Steinheil's story back into conversation. Its profile remained modest, but the film has prompted some renewed interest in press sensationalism, political scandal, and how women were judged historically today.

Critical reaction was muted, and the modest user rating of 4.0/10 reflects limited enthusiasm for the film. Viewers and reviewers noted its atmospheric period staging, but reactions pointed to uneven pacing and narrative focus. Central themes include social judgment, gendered power dynamics, intense media frenzy, and the fragility of reputation.