Skip to main content
A Private Life film image; woman looking over her shoulder while opening a filing cabinet

A Private Life

Vie privée

Special Presentations

This event has passed

Rebecca Zlotowski’s comic psychodrama features Jodie Foster at her best. Foster plays Lilian Steiner, an American psychiatrist who lives and works in Paris. When a longtime patient dies from an overdose of pharmaceuticals, Steiner is shocked and distressed. She comes to suspect foul play, but who’s the killer? Is it Valérie (Luàna Bajrami-Rahmani), her patient’s daughter? Is it Simon (Mathieu Amalric), her husband? There’s no shortage of unusual facts surrounding the death, but are they genuine evidence, or is Steiner just paranoid?

Foster balances restraint and intensity beautifully throughout the film — a rare and precious gift for an actor — and she uses every bit of her talent to dramatize the role of a shrink who can’t recognize their own neuroses. Amalric and Bajrami-Rahmani are stellar, as is Daniel Auteuil as Lillian’s ex-husband and Virginie Efira as Steiner’s patient Paula. Zlotowski’s film expertly combines the amusements of satire with the pleasures of a good mystery thriller.

 

Supported by

Director

Rebecca Zlotowski

Cast

Jodie Foster, Virginie Efira, Mathieu Amalric, Daniel Auteuil, Vincent Lacoste, Luàna Bajrami

Credits
Country of Origin

France

Year

2025

Language

In English and French with English subtitles

Film Contact
18+
103 min
Action & Suspense Comedy Drama Family Relations Women Directors
Les Films Velvet

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

Credits

Executive Producer

Albert Blasius

Producer

Frédéric Jouve

Screenwriter

Anne Berest

Cinematography

George Lechaptois

Editor

Géraldine Mangenot

Production Design

Katia Wyszkop

Original Music

Robin Coudert

Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre

It's a Wonderful Life

Dir. Frank Capra
130 min

Every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings. This Christmas classic is whimsical, sure, but it has the depth to stand up to multiple watches, and it really should be a communal experience, because that is what it's about.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Nutcracker at Wethersfield

Dir. Annie Sundberg
83 min

Back in the long, dark Covid winter of 2020, there was no way the New York City Ballet could mount their traditional Christmas production of Tchaikovsky's fairytale. But choreographer Troy Schumacher had a dream to save the show -- reimagining a classic.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

North of Ourselves

Dir. Marie-France L'Ecuyer
89 min

In the depths of winter, two adventurers set out to cross Quebec from one end to the other on bike and skis, exploring its staggering geography and meeting its inhabitants (human and otherwise) along the way.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Hundreds of Beavers: A Northwoods Christmas

Dir. Mike Cheslik
102 min

The funniest, and certainly the furriest movie you will see this year, Hundreds of Beavers channels the zany slapstick shtick of Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin and Bugs Bunny through a videogame quest narrative to retell the eternal saga of Man v Nature.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

The Secret Agent

Dir. Kleber Mendonça Filho
158 min

Having run afoul of an influential bureaucrat in Brazil’s military dictatorship circa 1977, Marcelo decamps to Recife to live under an assumed name — but he’ll soon come to understand precisely how rampant the country’s corruption has become.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

The Tale of Silyan

Dir. Tamara Kotevska
81 min

From Oscar-nominee Tamara Kotevska (Honeyland), this is a poetic, curious and enchanting non-fiction fable about a farmer's son who turns into a stork.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre