According to the reliable IMDb, The President’s Wife (released elsewhere as Bernadette) marks the 142nd screen appearance of the legendary Catherine Deneuve. Her career stretches back to the French New Wave of the 1960s, and includes some of the seminal films of Jacques Demy. She’s appeared in films by Roman Polanski, François Truffaut, Jean-Pierre Melville and François Ozon among many others. Now she lends her immense talent to first-time feature director Léa Domenach.
The result though is quite uneven. The story (by Domenach and Clémence Dargent) is ostensibly about the empowerment of women – and it scores on that front. But the plot soon runs out of steam and ends up basically repeating itself. The President of the title is Jacques Chirac, president of France from 1995 to 2007. Apparently, Domenach’s father was a journalist who specialised in covering Chirac’s tenure, so her pedigree for the project was clear. But the script lacks narrative drive, and the ending isn’t particularly impactful.
The film opens around the time of Chirac’s (Michel Vuillermoz) 1995 election to the presidency. His wife Bernadette (Deneuve) is clearly the brains of the operation and has been pulling her husband’s strings during the election. But once in the Elysee Palace, Bernadette finds herself sidelined by political insiders and party operatives. She’s relegated to largely ceremonial duties as “first lady” – and they’re not even fun ceremonial duties. Her demotion is even more galling because her daughter Claude (Sara Giraudeau) has been appointed as Chirac’s key aide. Surrounded by incompetent flunkies and hidebound by tradition, Bernadette soon finds herself a rather unpopular figure in an otherwise popular government. So she sets out to reinvent herself. With the help of adviser Bernard Niquet (Denis Podalydès) she ditches the dour outfits in favour of colourful dresses. Her blunt approach with the press softens and she becomes a media darling. And she’s able to become more assertive in curbing her husband’s philandering.
Despite a lyrical disclaimer at the beginning that the film is fiction, it’s clearly based in fact. Where the fact stops and the fiction starts is up to the audience to work out. Domenach went back through the official archives to find images to accurately reflect the times and places of the film. And it looks great, thanks in no small part to Elin Kirschfink’s crisp cinematography and some lovely production design from Jean-Marc Tran Tan Ba.
The film hits a lot of the same beats as François Ozon’s Potiche (2010) – which also starred Deneuve – so the idea isn’t exactly fresh. And despite its technical excellence, the film seems to have no idea about where it can – or should – go. The result is a bit of a mish-mash that never really resonated with me.
For all the film’s flaws though, Catherine Deneuve (as you’d expect) is excellent. Her commanding presence dominates the film, overshadowing many of the supporting players. That’s certainly true for poor Michel Vuillermoz (Midnight in Paris) who has to play Chirac as a half-witted boor, but is nonetheless convincing in that role. Similarly, the script doesn’t treat Laurent Stocker (as Chirac’s successor Nicolas Sarkozy) very well. But Denis Podalydès (The Da Vinci Code) as Bernadette’s stylist/adviser; and Sara Giraudeau (The Translators) as her daughter, manage to stand out from the pack.
While I wasn’t won over by The President’s Wife, it has its moments. And if you’re into that gentler, more whimsical style of French filmmaking, you may well find this is your cup of café au lait.
David Edwards
Other reviews you might enjoy:
- Alliance Française French Film Festival 2024 – a preview
- The Truth – movie review
- Farewell, Mr Haffmann – movie review
David Edwards is the editor of The Blurb and a contributor on film and television