On the public stage the noted author Mordecai Richler had bite -- the nasty, ego-marring kind that he reserved for those who challenged his views on everything from Quebec's language laws to the way Jews were perceived in contemporary society.

The uncompromising satirist was different in private.

"Mordecai had all the ethics of a man of a certain generation," says Francine Pelletier.

"He was a devoted father and husband. He was very straitlaced and very conscious of making enough money to tend his family," she says.

There have been films and books on Richler's life before, but Pelletier's documentary, "Mordecai Richler: The Last of the Wild Jews" (Sunday Dec. 19, 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on Bravo!), takes a closer look at his politics, his opinions on Quebec nationalism and the Jewish community.

"For years it was taken for granted that Mordecai's personality made him a born agitator. But it came down to a cultural trait, as the people we interviewed will tell you," she says. "That interpretation is new."

Pelletier's film comes hot on the heels of Charles Foran's new biography, "Mordecai: The Life and Times." The book hit stores in October of 2010.

Foran approached Pelletier more than a year ago to make this documentary. But her film is no mere companion piece to his book.

"My goal was to dig into Richler's Jewish upbringing and see how that shaped his public persona. The film does the job," she says.

Through lost photos, archival footage and candid interviews with Richler's second wife, Florence, writer Margaret Atwood and others, Pelletier reveals an intellectual hellion who held his own with Jewish provocateurs like Saul Bellow, Norman Mailer, Philip Roth and Lenny Bruce.

The film also reveals a man divided.

Richler's shyness and insecurity surprised Pelletier.

"I think Atwood says it best," Pelletier stops. "If you didn't have cigars and Scotch, Mordecai wouldn't come for dinner."

Atwood's inimitable smirk is in place when she makes her quip. But it points to a man who needed these props just to have dinner with acquaintances.

The film also spends considerable effort shedding new light on Richler's prickly relationship with French-speaking Quebec.

"I was worried I would only find Quebecers who thought Richler was horrible. That was not the case," says Pelletier.

One such figure was Québécois political analyst Jean-François Lisée.

The two men argued about politics in the 1990s. But Lisée was the first to call Richler one of Quebec's best writers, says Pelletier.

"When it came to Quebec, Richler went too far. He did make some good points, especially about some absurdities of Quebec's language laws. But he had a knee-jerk reaction to Quebec nationalism," she says.

"I still hear that from elderly members of the Jewish community. They fear nationalism because it smacks of Europe. Like it or not, that is their automatic response."

The film also dissects Richler's equation of nationalism to anti-Semitism.

"No one is saying there haven't been strains of anti-Semitism in Quebec or that it no longer exists. But Richler seemed to think it was a much bigger problem than it was. There is no real evidence to support that," says Pelletier.

His outspoken beliefs kept French-speaking Quebecers from reading his novels. The fact that Richler's books were published in France also exacerbated the problem.

"The difference between French French and Quebec French is huge," says Pelletier.

"That decision cost Richler. It lost all that colloquial charm that was so important in his work and so unique to Quebec culture."

Pelletier's film won't make all of Richler's critics forgive and forget. But she hopes the title will convey Richler's spirit to audiences.

The title comes from a line in "Barney's Version," where one character tells Barney's son, "Your father was one of the last of the wild Jews right out of Odessa."

That reference captured Richler's moxie and that of an entire generation of Jewish intellectuals like Bellow and Mailer.

"Richler's dearest wish was to be part of that great Jewish pantheon of writers and thinkers, most of whom were American," says Pelletier.

"The film adaptation of ‘Barney's Version' will help raise Richler's profile a lot. He would have loved that," she says.

"Richler lived and died for his work. He was wild about it, through and through."