Bernie is a 1996 French comedy film directed by, written by and starring Albert Dupontel.
Bernie Noël is an orphan who was found in a garbage bin. 29 years later, he decides to leave his orphanage in order to move to Paris and find his parents. Things go awry after that.
Unrelated to the american movie of the same name featuring Jack Black.
This Film Provides Examples Of:
- Black Comedy Rape: Bernie's father is desperate to have buttsex with his ex-wife or any woman.
- Body Wipe: As Bernie enters a bus, it transitions to a shot of Bernie leaving the subway.
- Covert Distress Code: When she has a private moment with Marion, Bernie's mother tells her that she is captive of Bernie while keeping a smile.
- Dying Dream: The movie ends with a dying Bernie who dreams of riding a horse in a wild-west kind of setting, along with his parents and Marion.
- Hostage Situation: Near the end of the film, Bernie and Marion are cornered by the police in a transformer cabin, and improvise this in order to run away.
- In-Universe Camera: After Bernie acquires a camera, we see footages of him talking to it as if it was a video log. Later on, many scenes of the film are seen from the POV of this camera.
- Maurice Chevalier Accent: Bernie learns english, and speaks it well, but his french accent makes it hard to understand what he says.
- Meaningful Name: Bernie Noël was found in a trashcan by a garbageman named Bernie on the day of Christmas (Noël in french).
- Meaningful Rename: Bernie later finds out that his father is called Donald Willis. He likes the american sound of the name and decides to rename himself John-Fitzgerald Willis. However, his mother later tells him that she intented to name him Mickey. It doesn't bother him and he renames himself Mickey Willis near the end of the film.
- Shame If Something Happened: When Bernie asks the garbageman about who his father could be, the garbageman tells him he doesn't remember. Bernie then says that he has a pretty-looking bird right before eating its head raw. Later on, a police officer interrogates the garbageman and compliments his bird pets. This quickly upsets him.
- Swallow the Key: Inverted. Bernie's father locks himself with his ex-wife in a room and shoves the key up his ass.
- Shovel Strike: Bernie's weapon of choice is a shovel for a part of the film.
- Sticky Shoes: Bernie has spiked boots for climbing wooden poles.
