As we are constantly reminded by the hackneyed adage, behind every successful man is a woman helping him on his journey. Those with knowledge of European or global politics throughout the 20th century will undoubtedly be familiar with the sometimes divisive and always controversial career of French president Jacques Chirac, something of a polarizing figure whose tenure in office had quite a few scandals. However, as is often the case, the most fascinating people in these stories are those that linger just out of view in the shadows, and in this instance, we have his wife Bernadette Chirac, a woman who dedicated her life to being a loyal companion to a man whose ambitions bordered on delusions of grandeur, something that plagued a lot of his presidency. This story is told in the form of Bernadette, in which director Léa Domenach, making her directorial debut, weaves together a memorable account of the Chirac presidency, viewed through the perspective of the person who was perhaps closer to him than anyone else, showing both the private and personal lives of this couple who were plunged into the public eye, having their entire lives put under scrutiny by the general public, all of whom developed strong opinions on their work. Seen through the eyes of someone who has always been viewed as merely being a peripheral player in a presidency that has stirred quite a bit of conversation, very little of it having to do with the dutiful wife who was a political firebrand behind the scenes. It may not be particularly daring filmmaking, but Bernadette does offer quite a bit of fascinating nuance to a subject that has mainly been ignored or overlooked, and the decision to give a voice to someone who has not been given appropriate attention despite her valiant efforts to bring change in some capacity immediately makes this film at least partially worthwhile.

Traditions may not always be exciting, but there is a reason why many filmmakers choose to follow conventions, especially quite early in their careers, particularly with material that doesn’t always lend itself to a more subversive approach. There are many films about political figures who are well-known by the public, but where the focus shifts away from them and instead draws our attention to the silent people who stand behind them. Not quite the Lady Macbeth narrative that we may expect (especially since most of the film focuses on how Bernadette was often at odds with her husband), but still one that makes bold assertions about how this woman was the mastermind behind many of Chirac’s most notable decisions, the kingmaker to someone who may not be viewed as favourably today as he was upon his election, but who undeniably made some bold decisions, many of which coming about through his wife’s quiet efforts to push an agenda that she knew would help him politically, based on her keen acumen and instincts that could rival those of some of the greatest leaders of the 21st century. There is a clear message, which is that Bernadette Chirac was far more qualified to be president of France than her goofy husband, but due to their dynamic and patriarchal social structure, she was consistently thrust into the shadows, forced to endure the silence that comes with simply being a woman who is so close to being in power, but yet is still so far from actually being able to make any change. The film does well to not glorify Bernadette as some martyr – it makes sure to acknowledge that she is still a massively wealthy socialite who lived a life of luxury and was a major figure in popular culture, but it still manages to make her a sympathetic figure, at least in terms of how it characterizes her as more than just a one-dimensional individual who strives for power and grows frustrated when she realizes how far it is out of her reach. 

Bernadette is the kind of film you don’t watch for the writing or direction, but rather to witness a great actor in their element – and while it may be slightly presumptuous, it is extremely possible that the entire purpose of this film was to serve as a starring vehicle for Catherine Deneuve, and it’s far to treat it as such. One of her generation’s greatest actors, she has more than proven herself to be an extraordinary artistic voice, so while she continues to do interesting work, we cannot blame her for wanting to take on a few easier roles on occasion, and for some directors to employ her talents as the anchor of films that would otherwise deflate immediately without someone of her stature standing right at the heart of the production. She has gotten to the point in her career where her simple presence is enough to draw in an audience, so it helps that she is always willing to commit to a role, even one that doesn’t require too much from her, which is the case with this film. Bernadette asks very little of Deneuve outside of requesting that she bring her well-known elegance and statuesque grandeur to the production, with the entire film seemingly being edited around her essentially playing this iconic woman as she goes her about daily life, trying her best to make change while facing challenges presented by many people that surround her. There is a version of this story that is a deep, insightful and moving character study that cuts to the core of what it was that made Bernadette such an enigmatic figure, but that isn’t this film, which is at the best of times nothing more than just an opportunity for Deneuve to play a role well within her wheelhouse, delivering a pleasant performance that neither stretches her nor asks her to work too hard, and in many ways, it is admirable to find an actor who has gotten to the point where their mere presence is enough to be the foundation for a film, and we find that many of the best moments of Bernadette come when Deneuve is at her most natural, which is worth something, even if it doesn’t necessarily feel like she is doing all she could to bring this story to life, even if she is as good as ever.

However, not everything about Bernadette is as strong as the central performance, and we find that once we look beyond the great work Deneuve is doing, the film itself is a paltry effort at best, a laboured attempt at political satire in which the humour doesn’t always land, and it becomes quite unnerving to see how many opportunities to become genuinely fantastic it missed, purely because it was striving to compress far too much into quite a small, compact space. The film consistently seems to be struggling to find its voice, and while it knows what it wants to achieve in terms of being a detailed character study of the titular public figure, the journey to get there is rough, to say the least. Tonally, it feels quite inconsistent, and it never quite establishes whether it wants to be an outrageous comedy, or a light drama with moments of humour, and the oscillation between the two creates quite an unnerving atmosphere that harms the final product much more than it defines it, which is not something that should factor into a relatively simple, straightforward narrative such as this one. It’s not a particularly funny film, and while there are moments where the humour does work, the majority of it seems to be based on the premise of presenting President Chirac as a self-centred buffoon, and someone who is in a position of power that would be more suited to his more tempered, level-headed wife, who has to struggle to get even the smallest changes passed under his draconian leadership. I’m sure that those who are cynical about Chirac’s presidency will delight in seeing him presented in such a hilariously negative light, but it becomes quite one-dimensional, and it lacks the depth and intelligence needed to elevate it from being mean-spirited and overly simplistic, one of the main reasons why it tends to falter with such extreme consistency, even when it seemingly had quite an easy task to achieve.

We can look at a film like Bernadette as being perfectly captured by its title – it is simple and unassuming, and neither contributes anything nor takes anything away from the artistic discussion, and instead exists as a pleasant work that will appeal to those who were initially on the same wavelength as the film from the start. This is not a film that will convert those who are cynical about this category of mid-level, mildly amusing biographical drama, but for those who find comfort and entertainment in the reliable nature of these stories, it will certainly be worth our time. This film does nothing we have never seen before – it hits all the beats we would expect, and the overall tone of the story is just about what we’d expect, primarily being factual enough that we understand the importance of the story, but also having enough humour that we aren’t forced to take the entire project entirely seriously, which is all part of the appeal of the film, and why it is a mainly solid, well-crafted comedy that understands what it wanted to achieve, and did what it could to develop on most of these ideas. It’s not inventive filmmaking, but it offers us what we expect, and for those who can appreciate this kind of solid storytelling, it does have a significant amount of merit when taken at face value. Its easygoing sense of humour, enormous respect for its subject matter (although not to the point where the reverance is misplaced) and overall tone make Bernadette a suitably entertaining comedy, and one that has a lot of worthy elements that may not be particularly unique, but work well for the film that the director and her collaborators endeavoured to produce.