Released in 2011 in the United States, and two years later in France, on VOD, BernieRichard Linklater’s film is released “in theaters” for the first time. A cast that seems to come from the limbo of another era: Jack Black in the title role, Shirley MacLaine as a sadistic, abusive and abused widow, Matthew McConaughey as a ruthlessly obsessive district attorney, with his feet on his desk.
It all starts from a delightfully banal news item. On November 16, 1996, in Carthage, Texas (population 6,750), Bernhardt Tiede, alias Bernie, 38, murdered Marjorie Nugent, an 81-year-old millionaire widow, with four bullets in the back.
They met six years earlier at the funeral of Marjorie’s husband, where Bernie officiated as undertaker. Bernie is an old boy who was complacently suspected of being gay, so delicate was his kindness. Director of the municipal choir, himself blessed with a remarkable organ, he is also a guy of sufficient build to manage to tip the body of his victim into the freezer, where Marjorie’s corpse will remain for a year, before his family finally obtained a search from the local police.
Everyone agrees on these facts, Bernie himself recognizes them without being shaken. In Carthage, it’s amazement, we can’t believe it. Bernie is too nice to have done that. However, he will receive 50 years in prison. Suffice to say that he will not come out of it.
“Bernie, the return”
Those of you who have never set foot in the United States would be wrong to feel self-conscious about only knowing this country through American films, because everything is there, and if something is not there , be sure that this something has no importance. Besides, in this country, we no longer do anything without being assured that it will result in a film or a series.
I don’t doubt for a second that if Bernie killed Marjorie, and did so in the most cowardly way, it was because he knew that a movie was going to be made of it. What Richard Linklater did not foresee was that by defending Bernie in his film, by damning the old and detestable millionaire to this extent, he was going to make spectators want to put four bullets in the back of this aggressive and rapate vioque of Marjorie. Under these conditions, Bernie’s defenders appealed and even managed to convince the judge to release Bernie until the appeal trial. Not knowing where to go, Bernie finds refuge in the garage apartment of the director to whom he owes his freedom. Yes.
How can we imagine that this episode does not give rise to a new film? Bernie, the return or something like that. It begins with the moving scene of meeting between the presumed innocent assassin and the liberating filmmaker, considerably enriched thanks to the 10 million dollars in revenue from his film.
During the investigation, we learn that Bernie was raped by his uncle when he was a child. One point in Bernie’s defense. But a little later, in the middle of filming Bernie 2, we discover that before killing Marjorie, Bernie had constantly lied to the old lady about the state of her finances, making her believe that the money he took from her account was used to buy shares super profitable while he spent everything (more than 3 million dollars) on the citizens of his parish, in order to consolidate his reputation as a patron. The director then understands that Bernie has fooled him (that’s what I was going with) and, furious, grabs a large knife with the intention of slitting his hero’s throat.
It is then that a conflict arises between the screenwriters to know which of the two should die murdered by the other. They manage to agree on a final scene where the director armed with a knife surprises Bernie who finishes placing real bullets in the weapon supposed to be loaded with blanks for the reenactment scene of Marjorie’s assassination. I would not be cruel enough to reveal the ending of this Texan comedy.
.