Bernadette Chirac: Is everything true in Catherine Deneuve’s film?

In Bernadette, worn by Catherine Deneuve, most of the events are based on confirmed facts. However, director Léa Domenac took the liberty of romanticizing Madame Chirac’s journey for the purposes of her comedy. So how true is the movie? We encode this in some surprising sequences.

“With my co-author Clemens DargentWe’ve read and watched everything we can about the Chirac couple and extracted a large number of short sentences and anecdotes that were used to write the film, strictly following the chronology, from 1995 when Jacques Chirac He became the President of the Republic in 2007, the date of the end of his second term. Once the story was set, we took liberties because we were writing fiction. “Leah Domenach explains.

Chirac in the arms of Claudia Cardinale in 1997?

On the night of Lady Diana’s death, August 31, 1997, it was very difficult to contact Jacques Chirac. According to a rumor spread by his driver, Jean-Claude Lomond, the head of state would spend the night with Italian actress Claudia Cardinale.

This moment of hesitation is brought to earth in the film when Bernadette nudges Elysée to take her husband’s hand. “It’s a rumor, we’ll never know if it’s true or not until Claudia Cardinale confirms it one day. What was confirmed is that he was nowhere to be found for many hours. Then, there were rumors in the corridors that he was with Claudia Cardinale.”Leah Domenach points out.

“On our part, we were not legally allowed to use the actor’s name. In the film, it is said that she was with an Italian actress. We relied on the facts, it must be said that he was. Not found anywhere. After that, we embroidered the rumor, imagining the crisis department in some kind of surreal panic room. For example, in the background is a card with Chirac’s head around the world. We were in a kind of crazy state.”emphasizes the director.

Bernadette fired Jacques Chirac’s driver?

Jean-Claude Lomond, just mentioned, was Jacques Chirac’s official driver for 25 years. The latter especially wrote a book that tells us about the behind-the-scenes stories of his work with the president: Twenty-five years with himPublished in 2001. In Leah Domenach’s feature film, the driver appears dressed as Lionel Abelansky and his name is changed to Molineux.

In the film, Bernadette has a strained relationship with the latter. And so it was in real life, especially with the driver’s revelations about Jacques Chirac’s personal life. Then he would swear to get rid of her. In the film, he uses the cavalier method and drinks it so that he is arrested by the police while drunk. In fact, it didn’t really happen that way.

“We were inspired by Jacques Chirac’s real driver, Lomond, who wrote a book talking about the Chirac family and Bernadette. Also, he actually appeared on Thierry Ardison’s show, as we show in the film. We just changed Lomond thanks to Lionel Abelansky. Special effects”Leah Domenach explains.

“The real story is that Bernadette hated Lomond because it was an alibi for her husband’s infidelities. She tried to get rid of him for years, but Jacques Chirac didn’t want to let go. She finally had skin, but not like us. In the film, she’s in the long run. He acted much more politically.”

Did Bernadette Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy really meet secretly in the confessional?

According to director Lea Domenach, we know that Nicolas Sarkozy and Bernadette Chirac secretly met in 2007.

“We don’t know where. So we made it up that they met in the confessional, because we laughed. Bernadette told him that it was in this place that he could finally forgive. It’s part of the joke. It’s like that. It’s like that, we’re always on the wire, using the archives waiting , which is true, and the opposite field, which is false.”The filmmaker points out.

Bernadette wanted 2BE3 as sponsors of Operation Yellow Coins

In 1997, Bernadette Chirac was looking for a sponsor to start Operation Yellow Pieces. It is a solidarity campaign that has been held every year since 1989 by the Hospital Foundation to raise funds for improving the conditions of hospitalization for children and adolescents.

In the film, Bernadette wants to clean up her image as a nervous woman and seeks out the names of fashionable stars to present them as the godfather of the operation. He then asks his advisor to convince 2BE3 (a popular boy group at the time) to appear with him, but it doesn’t work. The politician then turns to David Dwyer, played by Artus.

“It’s completely fictional. The part, ‘2BE3 is left-wing and all’. The whole thing is completely fictional. Bernadette Chirac and 2BE3 have nothing in common! How could she have this idea? It seemed completely unbelievable to me.”Leah Domenagh confirms.

“We thought and said to ourselves: how funny would it be if he went there in stages. At first he absolutely wanted 2BE3 and we offered him Les Muscles, which is also a complete lie. He said no and then we. See a few stages to get to David Dwyer choice.”

Did Bernadette meet Hillary Clinton in Correz?

To find out more about this momentous event, we refer you to our article published on October 5, which explains how Leah Domenach inspired Forrest Gump to recreate this sequence.

Will Karl Lagerfeld reconsider Bernadette?

In Bernadette, the scene shows the First Lady in the middle of a makeover session with the great fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld to update her style of dress. This sequence is a pure invention of Leah Domenach and her team.

“We knew that Karl Lagerfeld was very close to Bernadette Chirac and that her wardrobe evolved gradually: we imagined Karl remaking it on stage, which was again fun for us.”, reveals the film director. Additionally, Leah Domenach and her co-writer, Clement Dargent, deliberately softened Bernadette’s character.

“He’s certainly tougher than what we show in the film. We weren’t trying to hide that reality or create a hagiographic portrait, but we wanted a real fictional, comedic character. A character that might look like him, but isn’t quite him. He remains above all a hero of a fairy tale.”

Bernadette hits theaters on October 4.