A Private Life
Rebecca Zlotowski’s A Private Life (Vie Privée) is a sleek, off-kilter mystery that blends psychoanalysis, Parisian melancholy and flashes of noir absurdity into something altogether strange and seductive. At its centre is Jodie Foster, effortlessly compelling as Dr Lilian Steiner, an American psychoanalyst who has lived and worked in France for decades. The plot – such as it is – begins with the apparent suicide of one of her patients, Paula (Virginie Efira). Lilian is stunned and even more so when confronted by Paula’s grieving husband, Simon (Mathieu Amalric), who blames her for the death. But it’s Paula’s daughter, Valérie (Luàna Bajrami), who introduces the first real note of unease: something isn’t right. And Lilian, against her better judgement, begins to look into the event. While this is not a conventional thriller, and Lilian is no makeshift detective, what follows is less a whodunnit than a beautifully disorienting descent into uncertainty, grief and memory. Zlotowski never commits fully to a single genre or tone, but there’s always a sly, knowing wink beneath the surface.
The film brims with nostalgic detail: Lilian records her sessions on obsolete minidiscs, which her semi-estranged son Julien (Vincent Lacoste) has to special-order online. Her apartment is filled with unsettling oil portraits from past centuries that seem to watch her back, adding to the mounting sense of claustrophobia. And then, just when things seem grounded, Private Life tips into something stranger: a hypnotic past-life regression sequence reveals that Lilian and her lost patient met in Nazi-occupied Paris, and her estranged son reappears in an even more startling form. It’s a preposterous concept, and Zlotowski knows it – but she plays it straight, allowing viewers to find their own footing. Foster portrays Lilian with natural grace, slipping seamlessly between French and English, her control fraying just enough to expose the cracks. Auteuil is equally compelling as her ex, lingering like a ghost with unresolved affection. Their chemistry anchors the film’s quieter moments – their weathered intimacy rekindled not through plot but through glances, shared memories and unfinished sentences
Ultimately, A Private Life is less concerned with solving a mystery than with exploring how we live alongside the ones we never resolve. It’s about the stories we tell ourselves – in therapy, in relationships, in dreams – and how they resonate, even when they don’t form a cohesive whole.
Christina Yang
A Private Life does not have a release date yet.
Read more reviews from our Cannes Film Festival coverage here.
For further information about the event visit the Cannes Film Festival website here.
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