Jodie Foster has plenty of Oscars, Emmys, Golden Globes and more to prove she can do just about anything on screen, and now she is taking a step further and doing it all in French.
That part is not a huge surprise. On one occasion in 2004 she appeared in a supporting role speaking in french in A Very Long Engagement which starred Audrey Tatou. But now for the first time she has a starring role in a French production, Vie Privée (A Private Life) which premiered tonight out of competition as an official selection of the Cannes Film Festival, a most appropriate place to debut this new landmark in Foster’s career which just continues to dazzle,
She plays psychiatrist Lilian Steiner, a rock solid professional who has been doing this work a very long time. But when she learns a long time patient, Paula (Virginie Efira seen largely in flashbacks) whom she had only very recently seen, had suddenly died it sends her into a bit of a tailspin. What could have happened? In almost Jessica Fletcher fashion she finds herself getting deeper and deeper into the mystery, and actually turns up at her funeral where among others she encounters Paula’s widower, Simon Cohen-Solal (Mathieu Amalric) who is grieving of course and quite welcoming at first until Lilian introduces herself as Paula’s doctor at which time Simon angrily tells her to get out immediately. Shaken , she does but is now no less determined to get to the bottom of this. Could she really have committed suicide? She seemed fine, and it appears so unlikely. So, was she murdered? This opens up all sorts of avenues to explore and the screenplay co-written by Anne Berest and its director Rebecca Zlotowski keep the guessing game front and center.
Also in the mix is a playful relationship renewed when Lilian’s ex-husband Gabriel Haddad (the great Daniel Auteuil) turns up, reigniting their tit-for-tat relationship and with him becoming sort of an odd choice to partner in this quest, but that he does, especially in a crackerjack scene right out of Nancy Drew where Lilian must find a key document central to her theory of a possible homicide, and that means the pair drum up a plan to break into Simon’s home. They drive up there on a dark night and even spot him naked and intwined with a woman on the deck. Gabriel knocks on the door with the plan to ask him for help in getting his car started again as he fakes running out of gas. This is a rural neighborhood with no gas station in sight. Simon actually agrees and takes him to the garage. Lilian jumps into action, enters the house and starts snooping around. Zlotowski and Foster have a lot of fun with this, ratcheting up the suspense, and it is just one example of why this film is so fun to watch, an adult grown up entertainment with some beloved stars = Hollywood to France – like spending time with old friend.
What keeps it from becoming just a standard mystery is the complexity of Foster’s Lilian Steiner, a woman who in trying to find out what happened to a patient she saw for nine years, one Simon tells her “you knew her better than me”, she also finds she is investigating herself and her self doubts about what she has been doing for so long. It gets surreal at one point where a Fellini-esque dream sequence , positively Fredian, is set at a concert where Lilian , and Paula appear, as well as Simon as conductor and it is all wrapped up in Holocaust themes. Since this is essentially a mystery , at least on one aspect of it, it is best to let the viewer find out for themselves where it all goes.
Foster is amazing with pitch perfect French so good you wouldn’t be too off if you mistook her for Isabelle Huppert. Of course she is big American star Jodie Foster acting in French against this terrific cast of veteran French stars, and she doesn’t miss a beat in either the darker moments or some of the lighter, particularly opposite Auteuil. You almost want to see her make another film just with him. As usual Amalric is wonderfully wierdly watchable, as is another French veteran Vincent La Coste, and others.
The film looks sensational with crisp cinematography from Georges Lechaptois, and high production values across the board. This movie almost looks like it is from another time and no doubt it should be a nice success for Sony Classics in reaching the underserved older moviegoing audience that will eat this up.
Title: Vie Privée
Festival: Cannes – Out Of Competition Official Selection
Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics
Director: Rebecca Zlotowski
Screenplay: Anne Berest and Rebecca Zlotowski
Cast: Jodie Foster, Daniel Auteuil, Mathieu Amalric, Virginie Efira, Vincent La Coste, Frederick Wisman, Irene Jacob, Luana Bajrami.
Running Time: 1 hour and 43 minutes
