A SCOTS filmmaker has been chosen by Carla Bruni to direct the first fly-on-the-wall documentary about her life as France’s first lady.

George Scott, from Ayrshire, was given unprecedented access to the Elysée Palace to interview the former model and pop singer, who married the French president Nicolas Sarkozy earlier this year.

The 80-minute documentary, which will be premiered in France on New Year’s Day and broadcast in the UK next month, explores Bruni’s romance with Sarkozy and includes a series of candid interviews with her.

In one section, Bruni reveals: “I said to Nicolas: ‘I cannot choose between you and my music, it’s ridiculous. I’m not going to drop my job and iron my husband’s shirts for the next four years.’ So of course he didn’t ask me to choose, I decided to keep my job.”

Scott, who is best known for producing music videos and arts documentaries, had originally planned to produce “a film about a model who turns into a singer and makes a success of it”. Bruni agreed to take part because she was impressed by a film he made about the singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright.

However, within weeks of agreeing to the project, Bruni met Sarkozy at a dinner party in Paris and began a whirlwind romance.

“We had an agreement in place but we had not started filming when she met Sarkozy,” said Scott. “I thought, there is no way on earth she is going to make this film now.

I was as surprised as anyone when her manager told me she still wanted to do it and there were no conditions attached.”

Scott’s film includes footage of the couple at her apartment in Paris where Sarkozy dropped in unexpectedly to listen to her rehearse songs for her new album and Bruni’s admission that she was extremely nervous before their state visit to Britain in March.

“I was pretty terrified in the plane. I was scared, like stage fright before a concert,” she said. “It could have been a nightmare but it became a dream.”

In one segment, Sarkozy introduces himself to the film crew with the words: “Nick, nice to meet you.” He later excuses himself, saying he has a meeting with the American president-elect, Barack Obama.

Scott said he was attracted to Bruni, whose former lovers include Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton, by her music, and knew nothing of her celebrity boyfriends.

“I wasn’t aware that she was a model or someone who had famous boyfriends,” he said.

“I got into her music and listened to an album she had just done based on poems. I thought it was an interesting and courageous thing to do and thought she must be a brave woman.”

Scott, who moved to London after leaving school, began his filmmaking career producing music videos for EMI.

His previous projects include a BBC documentary about Elizabeth Taylor, England’s Other Elizabeth, and All I Want, the film about Wainwright.

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