Bernadette: Which Italian actor was Jacques Chirac on the night Lady Diana died?

In Bernadette, released on October 11 and starring Catherine Deneuve, most of the events are based on established facts. However, director Léa Domenac took the liberty of romanticizing Madame Chirac’s journey for the purposes of her comedy.

Together with his co-writer Clemens Dargent, the director read and watched everything he could about the Chirac couple in order to extract a large number of short sentences and anecdotes that were used to write the film, the chronology.

“The story begins in 1995 Jacques Chirac He became the President of the Republic until 2007, until the end of his second term. Once the story was set, we took liberties because we were writing fiction. “Leah Domenach explains.

Chirac in Claudia’s arms?

Among the remarkable scenes of Jacques Chirac’s mandate, the filmmaker invites us to the night of Lady Diana’s death on August 31, 1997. It was very difficult to reach Jacques Chirac that evening. 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 rumour, we’ll never know if it’s true or not until Claudia Cardinale confirms one day.

It is confirmed that he was nowhere for many hours. Then he was rumored to be 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 were relying on the facts, but he was nowhere to be seen. turn out to be

After that, we imagined the crisis unit around the rumor in such a somewhat surreal panic room. For example, in the background is a map with Chirac’s head around the world. We were in a kind of crazy state.”emphasizes the director.

Opening in theaters on October 11, Bernadette has already attracted almost 500,000 viewers!