In theaters since October 4, “Bernadette” is a comedy dedicated to the former First Lady. This is the first feature film by Léa Domenach, creator of the “Jeune & Golri” series.
At 80 years old, Catherine Deneuve slips into the skin of Bernadette Chirac, in a comedy which dusts off the image of the former First Lady of France. The French actress was initially surprised by this role proposal, before being seduced by the script and by her meeting with the director, Léa Domenach.
If this is her first feature film, the latter is not in a universe that is completely unknown to her since her father is none other than the political journalist Nicolas Domenach, a specialist in particular on Jacques Chirac. His mother, Michèle Fitoussi, is also a journalist and novelist.
COADIC GUIREC / BESTIMAGE Sara Giraudeau, Léa Domenach, and Catherine Deneuve at the premiere of the film “Bernadette”
For her part, Léa Domenach first studied philosophy, before dabbling in directing by directing her first short film during her film studies at Columbia University. It then evolves in production and becomes intermittent.
She launched into documentaries with a first film on social workers, made with a journalist friend, while also signing numerous corporate films. These allow him to earn a living while training in all positions, from management to editing to sound.
Listen to our interview with Léa Domenach, the director of Bernadette*:
In 2021, she created and wrote the series Jeune & Golri, broadcast on OCS. Led by Agnès Hurstel, the program explores the backstage of Parisian stand-up through the wanderings of an apprentice comedian who falls in love with a man twice her age. The same year, she co-wrote with her brother Hugo White Wallswhich designate those in their grandparents’ house – their grandfather, Jean-Marie Domenach, was a left-wing Christian intellectual – frequented by many intellectual figures in the 1950s, including Emmanuel Mounier, founder of the magazine Spirit.
Warner Bros. France
Michel Vuillermoz and Catherine Deneuve
Léa Domenach is now moving on to a feature film with Bernadette: “It’s the sum of all my previous experiences that allowed me to write and direct Bernadette. […] This film is a bit the result of this journey that some could describe as “atypical” in cinema.”
Although she does not share much with Bernadette Chirac, she detected a certain universality in the latter’s story: “[sa vie] resembles that of many women, who are just as educated as their husbands and who end up stepping back to give them space. […] I then said to myself that his story could really speak to everyone and if I chose to make it a fiction, moreover a comedy, it was to be able to reach a wide audience.”
*Comments collected by Vincent Formica, recording and editing by Chanelle Morvan