Bernadette: Did you know that? The daughter of a famous political journalist is at the head of this comedy

At the age of 80, Catherine Deneuve slips into the skin of Bernadette Chirac in a comedy that cleans up the image of the former first lady of France. The French actor was initially surprised by the offer of the role, before being charmed by the script and meeting director Léa Domenac.

If this is his first feature film, this is not the last in a world completely unknown to him, as his father is none other than the political journalist Nicolas Domenach, a specialist in Jacques Chirac in particular. His mother, Michelle Fitus, is also a journalist and novelist.

Leah Domenach, on the other hand, first studied philosophy before turning to directing, making her first short film while studying at Columbia University. Then it develops into production and becomes intermittent.

He started documentaries with his first film on social workers, which he made with a journalist friend, and also signed many corporate films. This allows him to earn a living practicing all positions, from management to editing to sound.

Listen to our interview with Leah Domenach, director of Bernadette*:

In 2021, he created and wrote the TV series Jeune & Golri, which airs on OCS. Directed by Agnes 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. In the same year he wrote with his brother Hugo White wallswhich marks their grandparents’ home—their grandfather, Jean-Marie Domenach, was a left-wing Christian intellectual—was frequented by many intellectual figures in the 1950s, including Emmanuel Mounier, the magazine’s founder. soul.

Leah 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 of a fruit of that journey, which some might describe as ‘atypical’ in cinema.”

Although he does not share much with Bernadette Chirac, he found some universality in the latter’s story: Like many women who are as educated as their husbands and who leave themselves to make room for them. I told myself that his story could really speak to everyone and if I decided to make it into fiction and more of a comedy to reach a wider audience.”

* Commentary collected by Vincent Formica, recorded and edited by Chanel Morvan