Heroine of the film Bernadette, Catherine Deneuve talks about Bernadette Chirac, her temperament and the life she led with the former President of the Republic Jacques Chirac. The actress also explains that while playing her on the big screen, she discovered an injured woman.
Catherine Deneuve is in the spotlight. The actress is the heroine of Léa Domenach’s new feature film to be discovered in cinemas from Wednesday October 4, Bernadettea “comedy” wrongly presented as a biopic dedicated to Bernadette Chirac. The one who refuses to write her memoirs despite her international notoriety and her successful career gave a long interview to Paris Match to present her role and explain the way in which she understood the life of the former First Lady which was punctuated by many misfortunes.
It was without tongue in cheek that she confided that she had changed her mind about him, particularly about the character and attitude of Bernadette Chirac, who some remember as being particularly “unpleasant” when her husband occupied the Élysée. “I had the image of hera very reserved womanwith reputation for being harsh“ she first declared, before discussing the ordeals that Jacques Chirac’s wife had to go through, including the death of her daughter Laurence in 2016.
The rest after this ad
Bernadette Chirac an abused woman?
Catherine Deneuve wanted to warn against prejudices. “I know well that an image is built at full speed and rarely corresponds to reality. We should refrain from talking about people we don’t know. personally” she added. For her, “Bernadette Chirac was a wounded woman to be kept in the shadows” by the former President of the Republic who happened to be embarrassed by his “outspoken”. In addition to praising her intelligence, Catherine Deneuve spoke of her patience when she was confronted with her husband’s infidelities. “Probably Jacques Chirac cheated on his wife, but like many men and not just politicians” she said, believing that Bernadette Chirac “suspected it”.
Injured woman but also humiliated. Still for our colleagues, the actress who won a César for her role in The last metro by François Truffaut remembered a particular scene from the film, the one where everyone “looking for her husband in the middle of the night” after Lady Diana’s car crashed under the Alma bridge on the night of August 30 to 31, 1997, “whilehe is at his mistress’s house“. For Catherine Deneuve, this “shows how painful the situation is for Bernadette”. “She then felt humiliated“ she insisted.
Don’t make her say what she doesn’t mean! Christian Vadim’s mother is not looking “not to defend it” however… “I’m told that I make Bernadette sympathetic, but we chose a particular angle: the revenge of a woman mistreated by a husband she adores“ she insisted.
Journalist
If writing is a pleasure, being read is even more so. Passionate about pop culture, Jonathan sets the pace in the right tone to always keep you well informed. Attracted by …