The True Nature of Bernadette (1972)
Bernadette has a yen to chuck it all and go back to nature, in this French-language Canadian film. That's just what she does after carefully leaving her wedding ring where her affluent husband, a lawyer, can see it. She has bought a farm, complete with a run-down farmhouse and a live-in cranky old man. Soon, because of the wonderful effects that her sympathy and her outsider's perspective have, her neighbors perceive great improvements in their lives. They attribute these changes to something miraculous (perhaps taking a cue from her name), and hordes of needy people descend on her farm.
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This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.
In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.
The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.
All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.
I was quite young when I saw this one and thought it tacky then because the characters spoke joual (French-Canadian for 'slang'). Was I ever wrong? It is probably the most intellectually stimulating Canadian film of the 70s. I saw most of Carle's later films with contempt based on my first and immature impression. The man really deserves a second chance and an apology from me. The lead actress, Micheline Lanctôt, who had never acted before (and who went on to become a respected director) is in practically every scene and gives the performance of a lifetime. She plays Bernadette, an unhappy Montréal bourgoise housewife who leaves her lawyer husband and her wealthy but empty life to move to the country and live on a farm with her little boy. The culture shock is not AT ALL what you would expect and yes some 'miracles' are performed. I could not recommend this movie more. Foreign films lovers should really look this one up.