A PRIVATE LIFE ©Jérôme Prébois
Jodie Foster as a psychoanalyst in A Private Life by Rebecca Zlotowski
IN THEATERS IN FRANCE ON NOVEMBER 26 – A Private Life , directed by Rebecca Zlotowski and starring Jodie Foster, Daniel Auteuil and Virginie Efira is now showing!
[Back to its Cannes premiere.]
Vie privée (A Private Life) is the realization of a dream long harbored by Rebecca Zlotowski: that of directing Jodie Foster. In this film, which is being presented Out of Competition and is the filmmaker’s sixth film, the actress takes on the role of Lilian Steiner, a psychoanalyst who goes beyond her job responsibilities.
Did Lilian Steiner listen to Paula, her patient (Virginie Efira), enough? The renowned therapist exposes her vulnerable side in the face of the disappearance of her patient. Convinced that it was murder, Lilian throws herself into a personal investigation, assisted by her ex-husband (Daniel Auteuil).
Zlotowski-Foster — a rematch story. The director already envisaged the actress playing the mother of Léa Seydoux in a scene in Belle Épine (Dear Prudence), her first feature film. The script was sent to her… but remained unanswered. The two finally met some ten years later, in Los Angeles, regarding the reading of what would become Vie privée (A Private Life).
“We reviewed the whole film, word for word, for six or seven hours straight,” says Jodie Foster. “I knew then that Rebecca was someone who took her work very seriously; that she had specific ideas for every aspect of the film.”
The title of the film, in the same way as this dream of collaboration, was Rebecca Zlotowski’s long-time obsession. “Vie” (life) and “privée” (private): two simple words that the filmmaker wanted for an intimate project, in search of truth. They end up being well matched with a story, which the screenwriter Anne Berest sketched out — a psychiatrist and her dead patient, united by their past lives. The director thus imagined a both paradoxical and amusing situation — a therapist in tears, listening to her client.
Presented by Thierry Frémaux as a screwball comedy at the 78th Festival de Cannes press conference, Vie privée (A Private Life) plays with the duality of tones: between deliberate comedy and deep dives into a personality full of gray areas.
