Jodie Foster Calls Out a “Huge Mistake” Big Studio Movies Are Making: “They Don’t Really Understand Their Film”
Any time Jodie Foster stars in a movie, it’s an event. One of our finest living actors, Foster gives every project, from indies to major studio releases, instant credibility. Whether she’s possessing immense gravitas or infectious charisma across a wide variety of genres, few people are doing it as exceptionally and effortlessly as Foster. After leading the latest season of True Detective and earning another Oscar nomination for Nyad, she has returned with a new film, A Private Life, directed by Rebecca Zlotowski, the French filmmaker behind Other People’s Children.
This crime/mystery thriller sees the two-time Academy Award winner in a dense role, placing her in an ominous mystery and going the extra mile to seek justice. In A Private Life, Foster plays Lilian, an American psychoanalyst in Paris, who is shocked by the death of one of her clients, Paula (Virginie Efira), who has taken her own life — or at least, that’s what is suspected.
Visits from Paula’s widower and daughter, along with the discovery of stolen files in Lilian’s office, suggest that foul play is in the air. This leads Lilian to undergo an amateur sleuth operation with her ex-husband, Gabriel (Daniel Auteuil), and a session with a hypnotherapist causes Lilian to wonder whether her relationship with Paula began in a previous incarnation.
In order to bring that therapy method to screen in a fresh and affecting way, Zlotowski says she underwent hypnotherapy herself. Of her experience, she says:
Foster and Zlotowski took the film to this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, where they stopped by Collider’s Media Studio at the Cinema Center and spoke with Perri Nemiroff about their new movie. “It had to be playful,” Zlotowski said when adapting the script for A Private Life, upending the expectations of a dark and gritty investigative procedural.
The comic tone is the secret ingredient to the film that has much more of a sense of humor than anyone expects. More than anything, the film is imbued with so much romanticism towards the country of France, and the director and star wanted to honor its rich history.
Check out the full conversation in the video above, with a time index below where the two discuss A Private Life, the uncanny inspirations behind Zlotowski’s visually dynamic aesthetic, and the infusion of French culture.
