Movie Review: A Private Life

4 stars out of 5

First of all, how come no one told me that a remake of Emmanuelle came out in 2024?!? Well, the co-writer of that, Rebecca Zlotowski, is also the co-writer – and the director — of A Private Life. I’m guessing these are very different films (and as soon as I post this review I will immediately research if Emmanuelle is streaming).

I was drawn in to A Private Life because it stars Jodie Foster in a French thriller, which are two of my favorite things. Or three. And I even recognized a couple of the French dudes in the trailer: Daniel Auteuil who I first saw onscreen in college in Jean de Florette and Manon of the Spring, and Mathieu Amalric from The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and a few Wes Anderson flicks.

Then the opening credits begin and we hear “Psycho Killer” – the Talking Heads song with French in it! Tres bon!

Foster is American psychiatrist in Paris Lilian Steiner, an old-school Freudian. Trouble is, she loses two patients in rapid succession. And one is due to death. Which she soon finds herself investigating, because this is a movie. Steiner enlists the assistance of a hypnotist (skeptical Steiner hypnotized? She must really be on edge) and Auteuil as Gaby, her ex-husband eye doctor. Foster and Auteuil are tres magnifique together, like a French Nick and Nora Charles. You can feel the love still between them after all these years, and the easy give-and-take. Plus what a warm, kind face the 75-year-old Auteuil has.

Was Steiner’s late patient murdered? And if so – by who? Perhaps daughter Valerie, intriguingly played by Luana Bajrami, who was in the superb 2022 film Happening. Or maybe it was the client’s hothead husband Simon, portrayed by Amalric. He was a Bond villain in Quantum of Solace, after all.

We end up with a smart modern noir with a strong dash of humor along with explorations of psychology and family dynamics. There’s also Judaism which you don’t find in a ton of thrillers, and kudos for casting a disabled person in a very small role that didn’t require a disability. (The Farrelly brothers always do this and I’m happy to see it in another movie.) I liked A Private Life it a lot but hell, I would’ve bought a ticket just to hear Jodie Foster speak French so expertly.