''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 ...

directed by Gilles Carle. 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 fi ...

. The film was also selected as the Canadian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film 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, a ...

, 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 perman ...

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 assemble ...

.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 f ...

, 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 second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

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 Government of Canada, 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 ...

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 ''Collège Jésu ...

as Bernadette * Donald Pilon as Thomas *

Reynald Bouchard Reynald is a given name. Notable people with the name include: *Reynald de Châtillon (1125–1187), French Knight who served in the Second Crusade *Francis Reynald Wewengkang (born 1971), current Persija Jakarta Football player *Reynald Lemaître ...

as Rock *

Robert Rivard The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, h ...

as Felicien, le maire * Willie Lamothe as Antoine, le postier * Maurice Beaupré as Octave * Ernest Guimond 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 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 ...

. 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