France rediscovers Bernadette Chirac, feminist icon at 90

2023-10-15 15:26:03

It is one of the fetish genres of French cinema: popular comedies, easy but without falling into the grotesque. A type of film that works as a commercial shot in the neighboring country, despite the fact that its artistic legacy is usually more than limited. One of the latest examples of this genre to hit theaters in France is ‘Bernadette’, the biopic starring Catherine Deneuve what the filmmaker Léa Domenach40 years old, dedicated to Bernadette Chirac90 years old and wife of former French president Jacques Chiracwho died in 2019 at age 86.

Although critics have not elevated it to the altars of this ‘rentrée’ nor does it stand out for its staging or biting dialogues, this film has the merit of remembering the story of Bernadette Chirac, probably the most political first lady in the history of the Fifth Republic and that changed the perception in France of the romantic partners of presidents. Its premiere on October 4 practically coincided with that of a documentary, on the France 5 network, also about the life of the only wife of an Elysée tenant who underwent scrutiny at the polls.

A before and after in the French first ladies

Domenach’s film is a free adaptation and does not presume fidelity to the smallest detail in the life of Bernadette Chirac, but it does describe her role and the construction of her character throughout the Chiraquista presidency, between 1995 and 2007. Its passage through the Elysée meant a before and after in the role of first ladies in France. She buried the discretion and completely secondary public role they had Yvonne de Gaulleexample of the faithful woman focused on the management of the home, and Danielle Mitterrandwith a much more relevant political activity at the head of the France Libertés foundation, but overshadowed in the media.

Bernadette Chirac broke with that framework. She became a well-known personality, with a fame similar to what they would have years later. Carla Bruni during the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy (2007-2012) or currently Brigitte Macron. An admirer of Hillary Clinton, she contributed to the role of the first lady in France resembles that of the United States. An evolution in the last 30 years that has coincided with an intense Americanization of French society, which has lost a significant part of its past specificities.

The film ‘Bernadette’ presents Chirac’s wife as a figure of mainstream feminism. In a way, Doménach’s film represents the adaptation of ‘Barbie’ for the inhabitants of the very bourgeois 16th arrondissement of Paris, who comb gray hair and admire the good aging of Brigitte Macron, 70 years old. Her main thesis is the metamorphosis that her image experienced throughout Chirac’s presidency and that allowed her get out of patriarchal relegation. She went from being a “woman of” to becoming a celebrity.

Of ostracism and fame

When Chirac arrived at the Elysée, Bernadette was perceived as a discreet woman, unfriendly for her traditional and somewhat aristocratic tastes. The press and her presidential circle mocked her for her infidelities of her husband, seen as a politician folksy, close to people. A role that contrasted with reality: she was a politician who had been active in the Republican right since the early 1970s and served as local representative in the provincial council of Corrèze (center-south) since 1979. Throughout her husband’s presidency, she turned the tables. And she metamorphosed her image and fame.

For this, it was delivered to heart press game. She changed her look and dressed in the most modern clothes from Karl Lagerfeld, head of Chanel. She devoted much of her time to the charitable activities of the Fundación Yellow Coins —dedicated to supporting sick children— alongside cultural and sports personalities. He visited the most discotheques fashion. She even joked by referring to the horns she was dragging because of her husband.

And he also revealed the interiorities of your personal lifeeven the most delicate ones such as the mental anorexia of his daughter Laurence, with the autobiographical book ‘Conversation’, which took French bookstores by storm in 2002. All of this catapulted her towards her fame. To be fair, that sauce and revelation of her private life allowed her to be recognized for what she was in her public activity: a politician. With all the law.