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

A Private Life

Vie privée

Special Presentations

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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 Comedy Drama Family Relations Women Directors
Les Films Velvet

Book Tickets

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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

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