The wonderful thing about most French films is there are very few concessions made to the cinematic world outside of France. If it works at home, then the rest of the planet will just have to accept all those tri-colour idiosyncrasies. This approach makes the work stand out from just about any other country.
Based ever so slightly on real life, National Treasure Catherine Deneuve plays Bernadette Chirac, wife of France’s 22nd President Jacques Chirac. After years of servitude to her husband’s career, when the time arrives for her to take residency in the Elysée, she doesn’t take kindly to the marginal position she is expected to live in.
Her emergence from the shadows cast by Jacques underlines most of the film’s humour. It’s marvellous to see Deneuve in a comic role and her timing and way with nuance is unflinchingly good. She is a class act and her role is written to bring this to full fruition. The subtlety shown raises the humour without resorting to joke after joke.
This is feminism shown in a most French way and it’s fabulous. Writer, director and producer Léa Domenach shows she has a way with comedy and has an irreverent approach where amusement comes from a large number of step-outside moments that surprise and entertain. Hard to see any other country making a film like this and that is indeed a compliment.
Rob Hudson
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