There are films that more than others reveal the intentions and history of the person behind the camera. Private life It appears as a tribute by director Rebecca Zlotowski, born in 1980, to Jodie Foster, who is the undisputed protagonist, and to the cinema of her formative years as a filmmaker. A work that blends mystery and comedy, psychoanalysis and humor, for which Zlotowski put together a dream team of co-stars: Daniel Auteuil – who sits back at the table of the Parisian bistro where we met him young and with a heart in winter -, Irène Jacob, who in the nineties lit up Kieslowski's red film, Mathieu Amalric, Virginie Efira, Frederick Wiseman in a beautiful cameo.
Jodie Foster, who plays a leading role in French for the first time, plays Lilian Steiner, an American psychoanalyst living in Paris who is convinced that one of her patients, Paula, who committed suicide, was actually murdered. She also involves her ex-husband, Gabriel, an ophthalmologist whom she asks to treat him. strange symptom that hit her after Paula's death – she cries profusely for no apparent reason – and together, they begin to investigate.
If in this the film seems to pay homage Manhattan Murder Mystery by Allen – Jodie Foster and Daniel Auteuil in the Parisian version of the bourgeois and amateur investigation by Diane Keaton and Alan Alda – or place themselves in the wake of the epigone Only Murders in the Building, Private life also moves on the parallel (self)psychoanalytic investigation of Lilian. The search for the alleged killer and that introspective They proceed hand in hand. Through hypnosis, Lilian enters a state of altered consciousness that culminates in comedy and then leads her to a renewed self-awareness. If she previously recorded the sessions with her patients—why wasn't she able to truly listen?—in the end, having agreed to listen to herself, he can do it with them too and give up on fixing everything on mini-discs.
But beyond the thin plot thread, the film shows itself through the continuous changes of register: psychological drama, grotesque thriller, dreamlike comedy at times screw ball, and Daniel Auteuil is the humorous sidekick of the splendid Foster, around whom the whole film is built. The soundtrack is based on Psycho Killer (Talking Heads), which accompanies the opening credits as a declaration of intent. A great entertainment: a bit self-serving, but with a pleasant rhythm.
Still at the cinema – Original title: Privacy, Production: France 2025, Director: Rebecca Zlotowski, Screenplay: Rebecca Zlotowski, Anne Berest, Gaëlle Macé, Editing: Géraldine Mangenot, Photography: George Lechaptois, Main cast: Jodie Foster, Daniel Auteuil, Virginie Efira, Mathieu Amalric, Sophie Guillemin, Irène Jacob, Running time: 103'.
