Who plays who in Bernadette? Focus on the interpreters of Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy…

Catherine Deneuve is well surrounded in this film by Léa Domenach.

Bernadette, she is very nice! First really liked the portrait of the former first lady of France by Léa Domenach. “I made this film to avenge Bernadette”, she tells us. Influenced by the subtitled documentary by Anne Barrière “Memoirs of a Free Woman”she explains having “rediscovered this woman who had always seemed a little bitter to me, a little old-fashioned but who, deep down, was silently lashing out.” Léa then says she focused on comedy, because Bernadette Chirac appeared to her during the documentary as being “the queen of punchlines, a very strong comedy character.”

Once his screenplay was co-written with Clémence Dargent (UFO(s)), she offered the lead role to Catherine Deneuve. “His first reaction was obviously surprise, she details. But we were lucky that she liked the script. And from our first meeting, I explained to her why I had thought of her: although she does not resemble her physically, they still have in common a fairly haughty bearing, something of the grand bourgeois. And Catherine Deneuve especially has this rapid flow that Bernadette can have when she is mean. This film is a bit like the story of the last queen of France and for me, I couldn’t see who other than Catherine Deneuve to play her!”

Bernadette: Catherine Deneuve Imperial (review)

At his side, we find several key actors of French comedy. A five-star casting, which we detail below, and which we compare in this slideshow with real photos of their models in the company of Bernadette Chirac.

Michel Vuillermoz, who already played a prince in Royal Palace!, by Valérie Lemercier, plays Jacques Chirac here. This is not the first time that he plays a French leader, since in the TV film The June 18 Appealhe played Charles de Gaulle.

At his side, an actor he knows well, Denis Podalydès (Liberty Oléron, The Conquest…), plays Bernard Niquet, the advisor to the presidential couple during Jacques Chirac’s two terms at the Elysée.

Sarah Giraudeau (The Office of Legends, The Speech…) lends his features to their daughter Claude, and Maud Wyler (Louise Wimmer) is his sister Laurence.
“Claude Chirac was much more scratched than I do, in many booksconsiders Léa Domenach in the new issue of First (no.544, with Napoleon on the cover). What I wanted to tell through her is the trajectory of a teenage girl growing up. Like when I was a teenager myself, I was ashamed that my mother came to pick me up from school, because I found her too old-fashioned. And as legally, we were very careful, there are few things that are not true, that have not already been told. Including this sentence: ‘it hasn’t been easy for me to be the one who isn’t sick’ that she said to her mother when talking about her sister Laurence (stricken with anorexia nervosa after meningitis and died in 2016, Editor’s note). If you find me a little harsh with her, I think this sentence saves her. It shows that she took it hard even if I don’t really show it in the film.

Laurent Stocker (Together, that’s all) plays Nicolas Sarkozy, a role played by Denis Podalydès in The conquest, in 2011. Did the actor recommend it? Stocker is in any case the only one to fall into imitation: “I admit that I found it too much”the director tells us, It actually went against my wishes. (to favor incarnation, editor’s note). But it was very funny and the whole set was dying of laughter…”

Lionel Abelanski (But who killed Pamela Rose?) plays Yvon, Bernadette Chirac’s personal driver. François Vincentelli (Clara Sheller) is Dominique de Villepin, Olivier Breitman (The Fine Flower) plays Karl Lagerfeld, Artus (A happy man) plays David Douillet and the revelation Juliette Pirotte was chosen for her resemblance to Mylène Farmer. Warner Bros., which distributes Bernadettekept some of these roles secret for the promotion of the film, but they can all be found in theaters right now.

Here is the trailer for Bernadette :

Léa Domenach: “I made Bernadette to avenge Bernadette Chirac!”