Academy Award winner Jodie Foster stars in this scintillating, slyly comic psychological thriller from French director Rebecca Zlotowski, in which a suspicious death yields a series of twists that lead back to old grievances — and maybe even to past lives.
Lilian (Foster), an American psychoanalyst in Paris, is devastated to learn that her client Paula (Virginie Efira) has taken her own life. Or has she? Visits from Paula’s furious widower Simon (Mathieu Amalric) and taciturn daughter Valérie (Luàna Bajrami), along with the discovery that files have been stolen from Lilian’s office, suggest that Paula may have fallen victim to foul play.
Assisted by her ex-husband Gabriel (Daniel Auteuil), Lilian undertakes some amateur sleuthing. Her initial investigations prompt more questions than answers until a session with a hypnotherapist causes Lilian to wonder whether her relationship with Paula began in a previous incarnation.
Written by Zlotowski with Anne Berest (Mythomaniac series) and Gaëlle Macé (TIFF ’24’s LITTLE JAFFNA), A PRIVATE LIFE deftly rides the delicate line between intrigue and zaniness. Perfectly paced and loaded with diverting supporting turns — including a cameo by legendary documentarian Frederick Wiseman — the film is partly a whodunnit and partly a story of revisited relationships, with a French-speaking Foster and Auteuil delivering effortlessly charismatic performances as long-time exes whose teamwork creates the film’s other big mystery — why did these two ever break up?
“It’s great seeing [Jodie] Foster in a role where she not only brings her trademark steely-eyed intensity but gets to flex comedic muscles…. She and [Daniel] Auteuil have a lot of sharp-tongued back-and-forth, and it’s a delight to see two titans of the craft be so easy around each other, letting sparks fly.” —Zhuo-Ning Su, Film Stage “It’s chaos with charm…. Foster jumps into it with a spikey vitality and an unexpected playfulness that buoy the movie as much as Zlotowski’s zippy direction.” —David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter “[A] delightful and whimsical film…. Finds its charm in Foster’s willingness to play an increasingly neurotic therapist who will do anything but go to therapy herself.” —Guilherme Jacobs, IndieWire
