BERNARD INAUGURATES A REFRESHING NEW ERA AND A HEART FELT GENRE OF CINEMA CRITICS

Bernard is not a conservative writer, nor a liberal journalist. She echoes the philosophy of "L'Acte Gratuit" of  Andre Gides. And she adds to it, her need for "time and space freedom". Bernard is not a 9 to 5 desk writer in a confined newspaper office. She works solely from her  home, thus giving herself an absolute freedom of  and control over her writing surrounding, creative mind frequencies, rhythm and cadence. And she is more productive, early mornings and late at night. Afternoons are Louisiana or Mississippi swamps for Jami Bernard. She is a prolific and a fast writer. But do not expect from Bernard to view  or preview a film and presto,  come up right away with a critique. She takes her time. She needs to sail above and deep  into the inner waves of the ocean of the film.  And if she is amid a contemplative mood, Bernard likes to marinate each scene and each frame of the film in her brain. In writing books, Bernard adopts the same writing strategy. And she adds more details, descriptive analyses, facts, data, even undisclosed information and intimate findings. Allegedly, Bernard's honesty and fervor damaged her friendly relationship and association with one celebrity who asked her to write his biography. But Bernard defended the integrity and veracity of her work. She stated that her book was not a quick job, but a "real book". She had to interview a considerable number of people, dig deep into the fabric of the story and surrounding events, including medical records. And if some passages were not totally flattering,  it is because she "can't be toady and give only good reviews" explained Bernard.

JAMI BERNARD IS A GEM!

In the early somber days of medieval Catholic church, theology and dogma were the monopoly and sole "patrimoine" of trained and ordained theologians and doctors of the Church. Consequently, their religious teachings and interpretation of the sacred books reflected the stagnant and rigid a priori understanding of Christianity. Any new ecclesiastic vision or un-conformist interpretation was "mise a l'index", meaning forbidden. And the results of such rigid and narrow-minded "Vatican policy" led to a total religious distortion. The Jesuits and Pierre Theillard de Chardin mirrored those events. The same syndrome, scenario and malady apply today to an avalanche of film critics. But this is NOT the case with Jami Bernard, because she does not belong to any particular camp, nor  does she take orders or instructions from a higher hierarchy. And because of the fact -thankfully- that Bernard never studied cinema with the intention of becoming a "traditional film critic", Bernard sees the world of cinema from a wider window, a higher hill,  and  writes about it out of  love, affectionate attachment and quite often with tolerance for movies. Another virtue of Bernard is her touching humility. Despite her enormous success and intoxicating fame, Jami Bernard is sweet and HUMBLE. And when you are powerful and a household name like Jami Bernard, your sincere humility can trampoline your name and signature to the highest level of love and admiration of your fans and admirers. Bernard echoes this reality. Jean Cocteau, once said about films critics: "Des cochons en bas de soie!" Verbatim: "Pigs in silky socks!". For he saw in critics, arrogance and irritating pretension. I read several of Bernard's reviews and critiques. This woman dipped her pen in the ink of her heart. Even though, some passages were sharp and critical, her criticism remained unbiased, tolerant, colorful, funny, funny, funny and right on. Jami Bernard is a gem. Simply, la crème de la crème.