52 Films by Women Vol 9. 41. Vie Privée (A Private Life) (Director: Rebecca Zlotowski)

 

Pictured: Dr Lilian Steiner (Jodie Foster) searches index files in a scene from the French language mystery, 'Vie Privée', co-written with Anne Berest and Gaëlle Macé and directed by Rebecca Zlotowski. Still courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics (US).

In a film about a suspected murder, you can’t get more on the nose than blasting your audience with ‘Psycho Killer’ by Talking Heads during the opening credits. That’s how director Rebecca Zlotowski begins her film, Vie Privée, a mystery drama that features American star Jodie Foster in her first French speaking role since Un long dimanche de fiançailles (2004). Foster plays American expatriate psychiatrist Dr Lilian Steiner, who at the film’s start complains to her upstairs neighbour about his loud music (the aforementioned song). Lilian is expecting a patient, Paula (Virginie Efira), who subsequently doesn’t turn up. Lilian leaves her a message. ‘I’ll have to charge you,’ she explains none too sympathetically. She receives a visit from her patient’s daughter, Valérie (Luàna Bajrami). Paula has died, having overdosed on drugs that Lilian prescribed. The young woman invites Lilian to the funeral, a Jewish ceremony in which all photographs of Paula are covered with sheets. Lilian removes one out of curiosity, in so doing threatening to release the Dybbuk, the dislocated soul of the deceased - a definite no-no. When she expresses her condolence to Paula’s widowed husband, Simon (Mathieu Amalrac) after the interment of his wife’s body, he glowers at her in a hostile manner and demands that she leave. He blames her for his wife’s death. Lilian considers foul play.

Pictured: Widower Simon (Mathieu Amalrac, right) throws psychiatrist Lilian (Jodie Foster, not pictured) a frosty look at his wife's interment, accompanied by his daughter Valérie (Luàna Bajrami, left) in a scene from the French mystery, 'Vie Privée' ('A Private Life'), co-written and directed by Rebecca Zlotowski. Still courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.

Zlotowski, who co-wrote the screenplay with Anne Berest and Gaëlle Macé, makes contemporary medium-stakes dramas that are neither intense dramas nor flat-out comedies. A scene from her previous film, Les Enfants Des Autres (2022), typifies her style: a woman (Virginie Efira) is trapped naked on the landing of an apartment in the middle of the night. There is the threat of embarrassment, even the potential for escalation, but no one’s world is fundamentally shaken. For many of us most of the time, life throws up problems rather than crises. Lilian sets out to prove that she is not responsible for Paula’s death, but she doesn’t need to do so, except for her own piece of mind.

Films that deal with problems rather than crises have their own entertainment value. There is no catharsis. Rather the audience is left feeling that difficulties can be overcome. Life is messy but not insurmountable. That said, Lilian needs help.

Helper number one is her adult son, Julien (Vincent Lacoste). He wishes his mother would visit more often to bond with her grandchild, but Lilian needs mini cassettes on which she records her sessions and asks Julien to order them. Zlotowski presents Lilian as averse to technology and also averse to people. She listens but doesn’t hear, an accusation thrown at her for using cassettes in the first place.

Pictured: Julian (Vincent Lacoste) reminds his mother of her grandchild in a scene from director Rebecca Zlotowski's French drama, 'Vie Privée' ('A Private Life'). Still courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.

Helper number two is her ex-husband, Gabriel (Daniel Auteuil). He is an ophthalmologist. She needs his assistance because she can’t stop crying regardless of her mood. Gaby prescribes eyedrops. While Lilian lives alone, Gaby moved on. Only his relationship with Vèra (Irene Jacob) has ended. You imagine that Zlotowski wondering who she might cast as Foster’s co-star? Not a French heart throb, rather someone who came to fame in the 1980s (in Jean de Florette) and has directed films himself, just as Foster has. At any rate, Foster and Auteuil make an appealing double act. Gaby indulges his ex-wife with a sense of longing, to relight the candle of their relationship, even though he needs to ignite an entire candelabra.

Lilian has an additional problem. A patient, Pierre (Noam Morgensztern) demands that his treatment cease immediately. Lilian asks him to lie down and explain himself. Pierre came to Lilian because he needed help to stop smoking. After many years and sessions, the talking cure had no effect. He finally consulted a hypnotist who ended his habit after a single visit and for a fraction of the price. Furious with Lilian, Pierre gives her contact details of the woman who helped him. He subsequently insists that Lilian repay the cost of his sessions. Lilian is not the first screen therapist to be asked for a refund. Don (Tobias Menzies), the psychiatrist husband of Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Beth in Nicole Holofcener’s 2023 film, You Hurt My Feelings, faced a similar demand. Lilian is very focussed on her reputation, consulting her mentor, Dr. Goldstein (the American documentary filmmaker, Frederick Wiseman) who offers little help. This is Wiseman’s second appearance in a French language film directed by a woman in twelve months, after Laura Piani’s Jane Austen à gâché ma vie.

Lilian’s visit to the hypnotist, Jessica (Sophie Guillemin) is the film’s best scene. Lilian is sceptical about the hypnotist’s ability to achieve results. Jessica rises to the challenge. She puts Lilian to sleep, whereupon she finds herself dreaming that she is in a concert hall with her ex-husband. Paula is also there. Standing at the back, flanked by Nazi officers, is Paula’s husband. Lilian insists on paying for the session and names the price. ‘I decide on how much should be paid,’ Jessica replies haughtily. At any rate, she doesn’t charge. One of the points of the scene is illustrate the vulnerability of even the most educated person. Lilian is no closer to a motive for her patient’s death. It also suggests that hypnosis and psychiatry are two sides of the same coin, a party trick.

To say more about Lilian’s discoveries would be to spoil the film, but she discovers that Paula’s circumstances had changed before her death. She and Gaby find themselves breaking into a shed, just as someone has broken into Lilian’s office and stole some mini cassettes. The stakes only increase because Lilian’s behaviour borders on the criminal.

A modest addition to Foster’s filmography, Vie Privée suggests that ex-partners can have perfectly amicable relations when a cause unites them. It is optimistic, believing that people act for the best in spite of all their flaws. We hear ‘Psycho Killer’ a second time as Lilian and Gaby approach the property that they are about to search. Zlotowski’s deployment of the song highlights its use of English and French. It’s a hybrid, rather like the film. When Lilian is annoyed, she curses in English. There is suspense, light comedy but compassion too. Lilian becomes a more affectionate grand maman. Zlotowski’s film offers moderate pleasure, but pleasure none the less.

Reviewed at French Film Festival, Cine Lumiere, South Kensington, London, Saturday 15 November 2025, 11:20am screening