This Wednesday, Bernadette was released on screens, a film centered on the wife of President Jacques Chirac, played by Catherine Deneuve. The opportunity to look back on his immense career, through a quiz in 9 films from his impressive filmography.
More than a hundred films in around sixty years of career for one of the most iconic actresses of French cinema who had the opportunity to film with the cream of directors from François Ozon to François Truffaut via Luis Buñuel, Tony Scott and even Jean-Paul Rappeneau.
Catherine Deneuve is therefore releasing today her new feature film, Bernadette, which returns to a specific period in the life of Jacques Chirac’s wife, just after the latter’s victory in the 1995 presidential election.
Before launching into this quiz exploring the actress’s filmography, here are some filming secrets around this new feature film by Léa Domenach, who also spoke to the AlloCiné mirco behind the scenes of this spicy comedy.
DID YOU KNOW ?
Genesis
Léa Domenach knows Jacques Chirac well since her father, the political journalist Nicolas Domenach, is a specialist on the former President. But his wife was much less familiar to him and she had a fairly negative image of her, until she discovered the documentary Bernadette Chirac, memoir of a free woman, by Anne Barrère, who had been her advisor in communication.
Original title
The film was originally to be titled La Tortue, in reference to the nickname given by Jacques Chirac to his wife.
Catherine Deneuve
Léa Domenach immediately had Catherine Deneuve in mind to play Bernadette Chirac, but she detached herself from this idea during the writing to concentrate on the characters. A few years later, once the script was finished, she had the opportunity to have it read to Catherine Deneuve, who was initially surprised by this proposal: “My first reaction was ‘What? Bernadette Chirac?…’ Biopics don’t interest me“. But she was seduced by the scenario which made her laugh.
The part of reality and fiction
Most of the storyline is based on proven facts. Co-screenwriter Clémence Dargent and Léa Domenach read and watched everything possible about the Chirac couple, and derived a large number of short sentences and anecdotes which were used to write the film, respecting to the letter the chronology, from 1995, the year when Jacques Chirac became President of the Republic, to 2007, the date of the end of his second term.
Now it’s time to play and try to find the titles of these nine films starring Catherine Deneuve!