@Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

After the psychological drama Nyad (for which she gained her fifth Oscar nominee, second as supporting actress), after the darkness and complexity of HBO series True Detective: Night Country, Jodie Foster was most likely looking for a more relaxing next project. She definitely found it with A Private Life, directed by Rebecca Zlotowski. In this movie the Two-time Academy Award winner (Accused, Silence of the Lambs) plays Dr. Lilian Steiner, a psychoanalyst whose patient Paula suddenly commits suicide. The fact is Lilian doesn’t believe the woman killed herself, and starts a tragicomic investigation in order to find the truth, while trying to balance her personal and professional lives, both going sideways.

In her first French-language movie, Jodie Foster as always demonstrates her enormous acting skills: the capacity to portray a slightly neurotic woman, who prefers to deal with other people’s issues way more than with her own, is in the end what makes the whole production definitely enjoyable. A Private Life develops in fact as a witty murder-mystery where the tone and the atmosphere of the scenes count more than the actual plot. Which is okay, since from the very beginning Rebecca Zlotowski makes clear that her intent is to build a character-study more than an actual thriller.

The formula works if you focus specifically on the performance of the cast: other than Jodie Foster, in A Private Life we can also enjoy the presence of iconic French actors like Daniel Auteuil, Mathieu Amalric, Iréne Jacob in a brief cameo, plus Virginie Efira. The entire cast completely submits its craft to shape the vision of the director, creating a bizarre environment in which most of the characters wander around without really understanding what’s going on.

@Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

French cinema has created and solidified over the decades this kind of elegant, slightly snobbish, upper-class kind of comedies, and A Private Life fits into this tradition without any problem. The ideas at the base of the screenplay and the plot itself are nothing new or even original, but that clearly wasn’t the goal. Rebecca Zlotowski in fact tries – maybe even a little too much – to homage this kind of comedy from the past, making her own feature film something quite predictable. 

You must truly know what you are going to watch if you want to embrace the spirit and the essence of A Private Life. Or at least, what to expect from it. Behind the frame of the classic murder-mistery lies in fact a sophisticated comedy that talks about the neurosis of a specific social class. Paris is as always a magnificent setting for stories like this, and Zlotowski takes every possible advantage of shooting in cafes, restaurants and posh streets of the French capital. Without being a great movie, A Private Life is perfectly capable of entertaining a certain type of audience, thanks especially to the protagonist Jodie Foster, to her lovely duets with Daniel Auteuil, to the surreal comedy of a couple of situations.

There is not a lot more in the movie by Rebecca Zlotowski, but it’s enough to guarantee a discreet dose of entertainment. That said, Rebecca Zlotowski as a director confirms that she is on the way to find her voice inside French and international cinema. After her previous, interesting Other People’s Children, starring Virginie Efira together with Roschdy Zem and Chiara Mastroianni, Zlotowski showed a clear view of what she wanted to create in her last movie. When she will be able to work on more solid and/or original screenplays, the movies will definitely benefit from having  a more solid base on where to build her mise en scene. 

@Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

Rate: C+

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Here’s the trailer for A Private Life: