In Bernadettea fun biographical film where Catherine Deneuve shines in the role of Bernadette Chirac, Léa Domenach tells how the former first lady of France became the darling of the people.
Part gentle political satire, part candy pink feminist comedy, and part playful biographical film, Bernadette, Léa Domenach’s first feature film, flirts happily with fantasy and doesn’t hide it. And this, even if the director perfectly reproduces certain scenes sketched by the media and is inspired by Forrest Gumpby Robert Zemeckis, to recreate other significant moments in the life of the former first lady of France.
Thus, from the first scene, where a chorus presents the central character, Bernadette Chirac, born Chodron de Courcel on May 18, 1933 in Paris, we announce that what will follow takes great liberties with reality. And that’s it for the historians who would like to tap the fingers of the filmmaker, daughter of the political journalist Nicolas Domenach, a great specialist in… Jacques Chirac.
Outdated with her old Chanel suits, which earned her reprimands from the fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld (Olivier Breitman), icy, haughty, treating the small staff with disdain, Bernadette Chirac, played with mastery by the ex-muse of Chanel Catherine Deneuve, is not the kind of woman you would want to meet. Certainly not in the corridors of the Élysée.
Even if she patiently supported her husband for years so that he was elected President of the Republic in 1995, we easily understand why Jacques Chirac (Michel Vuillermoz, hilarious with his simple smiles) and their daughter Claude (Sara Giraudeau), his assistant, wanted to relegate Bernadette to the shadows. However, thanks to her chief of staff, Bernard Niquet (Denis Podalydès), the lady in pastel, presented as having more flair than her husband, will prove to them that she is not a fake. To the great surprise of the Chirac clan, the French people fell in love with their first lady.
Surprising crossover between Legally Blondeby Robert Luketic, and Poticheby François Ozon, where Deneuve brilliantly took over the role created on stage by Jacqueline Maillan, Bernadette takes a tender and respectful look at an unwelcome character that the great French actress manages to make human and endearing. Although the director and her co-writer Clémence Dargent mischievously rewrite History to the detriment of Jacques Chirac, who appears as a puppet, like his successor Nicolas Sarkozy (Laurent Stocker, who perfectly imitates the politician’s phrasing), it is not sure that their Bernadette goes down in history.
Indoors
Drama
Bernadette
Léa Domenach
Catherine Deneuve, Denis Podalydès and Michel Vuillermoz
1:32 a.m.