The President's Wife

Long the woman-behind-the-man, Bernadette Chirac (Catherine Deneuve) arrives at the presidential Elysée Palace in 1995 frustrated and all but cast off by her newly elected husband, Jacques (Michel Vuillermoz). In Léa Domenach's whip-smart feature film debut based on true events, Madame Chirac's rise from invisible political spouse to major media figure—as calculated as it was inevitable—is chronicled with equal parts reverence and wit, driven by Deneuve's wryly memorable central performance. A Toronto Film Festival World Premiere.