Film: A Private Life (Cert: 15A)

Film: A Private Life (Cert: 15A)

About the film

Dr. Lilian Steiner, an American psychiatrist living in Paris, is already struggling with professional and family life stress when she receives the news a patient, Paula, has died. Attending the wake, Steiner receives a hostile reception from Paula’s husband and becomes convinced there’s more to her patient’s death than meets the eye. She embarks on her own investigation into the death, confronting some of her own neuroses and unresolved traumas along the way.

Starring Jodie Foster - speaking fluent French throughout - leads the cast of Rebecca Zlotowski’s new film. Part psychological character study and part suspense thriller - with a dash of farce for good measure - this is a thoroughly enjoyable mystery with some of contemporary French cinema’s finest actors starring alongside Foster.

Festivals:
Cannes Film Festival, 2025

‘A Private Life is as much a thriller as it is a character study, also making room for a romantic drama and even elements of dark comedy... Foster’s quiet, observant character forms its strong center’

Tim Grierson, AV Club

‘[A] delightful and whimsical film... [It] finds its charm in Foster’s willingness to play an increasingly neurotic therapist who will do anything but go to therapy herself.’

Guilherme Jacobs, Indiewire

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