''The True Nature of Bernadette'' (french: La Vraie Nature de Bernadette) is a 1972 Canadian

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

Gilles Carle Gilles Carle, (July 31, 1928As fully funny, Carle had pleasure to always give himself one year less, and to let people think wrongly that he was born in 1929, "The Year of the Big World Crash": see on the Quebec French newspapers that many writer ...

. It was entered into the

1972 Cannes Film Festival The 25th annual Cannes Film Festival was held from 4 to 19 May 1972. The Palme d'Or went to the Italian films ''The Working Class Goes to Heaven'' by Elio Petri and ''The Mattei Affair'' by Francesco Rosi. The festival opened with the French film ...

. The film was also selected as the Canadian entry for the

Best Foreign Language Film This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

at the

45th Academy Awards The 45th Academy Awards were presented Tuesday, March 27, 1973, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, California, honoring the best films of 1972. The ceremonies were presided over by Carol Burnett, Michael Caine, Charlton Heston, ...

, but was not accepted as a nominee. In 1984 the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permane ...

ranked the film tenth in the

Top 10 Canadian Films of All Time The Top 10 Canadian Films of All Time is a list compiled by the Toronto International Film Festival ranking what are the considered the best Canadian films. The list has been compiled once roughly every 10 years starting in 1984, typically assembl ...

.Top 10 Canadian Films of All Time
," ''

The Canadian Encyclopedia ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' (TCE; french: L'Encyclopédie canadienne) is the national encyclopedia of Canada, published online by the Toronto-based historical organization Historica Canada, with the support of Canadian Heritage. Available fo ...

, 2012, URL accessed 28 April 2013. The film won

Canadian Film Awards The Canadian Film Awards were the leading Canadian cinema awards from 1949 until 1978. These honours were conducted annually, except in 1974 when a number of Quebec directors withdrew their participation and prompted a cancellation. In the 1970s ...

for Director, Actress (Micheline Lanctôt), Supporting Actor (Donald Pilon) and Musical Score.

Plot

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

housewife leaves her husband and comfortable home in order to practice vegetarianism and free love, which she finds in a

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

farm.

Cast

Micheline Lanctôt Micheline Lanctôt (born May 12, 1947) is a Canadian actress, film director, screenwriter, and musician. Biography Lanctôt was born in Frelighsburg, Quebec. Her post-secondary education was in music, fine arts, and theatre at École de musique ...

as Bernadette * Donald Pilon as Thomas * Reynald Bouchard as Rock * Robert Rivard as Felicien, le maire *

Willie Lamothe Willie Lamothe was the stage name of Joachim Guillaume Lamothe (January 27, 1920 – October 19, 1992), a Canadian musician and actor from Quebec.

as Antoine, le postier * Maurice Beaupré as Octave *

Ernest Guimond Ernest is a given name derived from Germanic languages, Germanic word ''ernst'', meaning "serious". Notable people and fictional characters with the name include: People *Archduke Ernest of Austria (1553–1595), son of Maximilian II, Holy Roman ...

as Moise * Julien Lippé as Auguste * Claudette Delorimier as Madeleine *

Pierre Valcour Pierre is a masculine given name. It is a French form of the name Peter. Pierre originally meant "rock" or "stone" in French (derived from the Greek word πέτρος (''petros'') meaning "stone, rock", via Latin "petra"). It is a translation ...

as Courchesne *

Yvon Barrette Yvon Barrette (born September 16, 1946) is a Canadian actor from Alma, Quebec. He is best known for his portrayal of goaltender Denis Lemieux in 1977's '' Slap Shot''.Mike Mastovich"‘Slap Shot’ at 40: Goalie Denis Lemieux still a Johnstown fav ...

as St-Luc * Yves Allaire as St-Marc * Yannick Therrien as Yannick * Gilles Lajoie as Napoleon

Production

The film was shot from 18 October to 29 November 1971.

Release

''The True Nature of Bernadette'' and '' A Fan's Notes'' were the first privately-funded Canadian films shown at the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...

. The film was theatrically released on 6 May 1972, in Montreal.

References

Works cited

* *

External links

* 1972 films 1970s French-language films 1972 drama films Films directed by Gilles Carle Films set in Quebec Films scored by Pierre F. Brault Canadian drama films French-language Canadian films 1970s Canadian films {{1970s-drama-film-stub