MOTW January 16, 2026: A PRIVATE LIFE
A psychiatrist’s personal and professional insecurities come together to send her spiraling in the wake of her long-time patient’s death in director Rebecca Zlotowski’s engrossing mystery/thriller A Private Life. Starring Jodie Foster in her French-language feature debut, the film follows Dr. Lilian Steiner (Foster) as she gets caught up in trying to prove that the engimatic Paula Cohen-Solal (Virginie Efira) didn’t die by suicide but, in fact, was murdered.
Lilian is a competent, confident analyst when the movie begins, if not particularly good at her own relationships (she’s a very prickly mom and a hands-off grandmother to her son’s newborn baby). But then a patient tells her that he’s ending treatment after one session with a hypnotist accomplishes what years of seeing Lilian didn’t: getting him to stop smoking. And Paula’s daughter calls to inform Lilian that her mother has passed away. Lilian goes to pay her respects, only to be shouted at by Paula’s widower, Simon (Simon Cohen-Solal), who seems to blame Lilian in some way for his wife’s death.
After Lilian makes her own visit to the hypnotist and experiences a supposed past-life regression, she quickly finds herself seeing Paula and her circumstances—both in life and death—in a new light. She enlists the help of her ex, Gabriel (Daniel Auteuil), and tries to get to the bottom of everything, but things rapidly spin out of control, and everyone, including Lilian herself, isn’t sure whether she can be trusted … especially after she’s had a few glasses of wine.
The film really hinges on Foster’s performance as Lilian, and she definitely delivers. She’s been fluent in French since childhood, but this is her first significant French-language performance, and she’s just as compelling en français as she is in English. Lilian, like her patients, is far from a fully reliable narrator, and it can be maddening to watch her fall victim to doubt and paranoia. But that’s entirely the point, and Foster and Zlotowski make the experience worth a viewer’s while.– Betsy Bozdech
Team #MOTW’s comments:
Nell Minow: Most movies are made because the filmmakers have a story to tell or a point they want us to understand. Or, the movie is made to advance someone’s career or make money. Rarely we see a filmmakers create the film they want to see. A Private Life is that movie, elegant, graceful, uneven but engaging, with beautiful performances, Jodie Foster, more relaxed and natural onscreen than usual, comfortable with the comic touches and showing tons of chemistry with Daniel Autueil. I’d love to see a sequel about where their relationship goes next.
Sherin Nicole That Jodie Foster is riveting isn’t the surprise of the French film, A Private Life. When hasn’t she been? What pulls you into this ever-so-slightly surrealist exploration is that her real detective work is internal. The film is an examination of self, pushing Foster’s Lillian to follow clues locked within the past, break the lies of emotional suppression, and investigate what’s been killing every part of her—her career, her relationship with her family, and her joy. That’s the murder at the heart of this mystery and the surprise of A Private Life. Learning that to truly live, life cannot be so private that it’s done in emotional isolation, and the greatest strength of the past is what it does for us now. Voilà.
Loren King I was hooked within the first 10 minutes of director Rebecca Zlotowski’s sleek Hitchcockian thriller. From the moment we see Jodie Foster’s intriguing Liliane, a meticulous, French speaking American therapist practicing in a Rosemary’s Baby-like building, the tension is palpable. She’s shaken by the news that a longtime client Paula (Virginie Efira) has died suddenly. Liliane goes to the not-incidentally Jewish service in Paula’s home where she’s unceremoniously thrown out by her irate husband (Mathieu Amalric). What ensues is a potent mix of physiological thriller and prickly character study as Liliane tries to piece together clues from her session recordings to uncover what might have happened and peels back layers on her own culpability and her own demons. Zlotowski’s tone is assured, playfully stylish and full of surprises. Foster, speaking French, is showcased in the kind of smart, sophisticated role that has defined her career.
Leslie Combemale It is Foster’s anchoring presence, and the nuanced shifts that happen, moment to moment, in her movements and facial expressions, that make the film work. The chemistry between Foster and Auteuil, both colossal presences onscreen and award-winning performers of the highest order, does the heavy lifting in keeping viewers engaged. Read full review.
Jennifer Merin French filmmaker Rebecca Zlotowski’s A Private Life is a tense psychological thriller starring Jodie Foster as Lilian Steiner, a Parisian psychiatrist who is convinced that one of her patients has been murdered. When she sets out to investigate. she faces unforseen challenges about her practice and her own personal life. Directed and co-written by Zlotowski with Anne Berest and Gaëlle Macé, the story unfolds as Steiner fights to maintain her credibility with her peers — while struggling with her self doubt. Foster, fluently speaking French for the entire film, is superb. So is the rest of the cast. Enjoy!!
Sandie Angulo Chen: Thanks to Jodie Foster’s gripping performance and Rebecca Zlotowski’s assured direction, A Private Life is a smart, French-language thriller about a renowned psychotherapist who believes her former patient was murdered rather than dying by suicide. Foster, fluent in French and commanding throughout, is as riveting as ever as Dr. Lilian Steiner, an exacting and formidable woman who begins to question both her professional and personal choices as she delves deeper into her patient’s death. Co-starring the excellent Daniel Auteuil as Lilian’s ex-husband, with whom she shares a palpable and often comedic chemistry, the film skillfully balances its murder-mystery elements with a more compelling and relatable personal journey.
Cate Marquis Jodie Foster, speaking French, stars as a Parisian psychiatrist, Dr. Steiner, who learns a patient has suddenly died, after getting a mysterious phone call from the patient’s daughter, in French director Rebecca Zlotowski’s psychological thriller A Private Life. The patient’s husband (Mathieu Amalric) blames the psychiatrist for his wife’s death but Dr. Steiner quickly suspects murder. Mysterious events occur and questions pile up, as the film sends us down a path strewn with puzzles, references to dybbuks (evil spirits), hypnotism, and a past life in Nazi occupied Paris, as the doctor tries to uncover, with the help of her ex-husband (Daniel Auteuil), what really happened. And the doctor does find answers, but just not the ones she expects, in this cleverly-plotted delight.
FILM DETAILS:
Title: A Private Life
Director: Rebecca Zlotowski
Release Date: January 16, 2026
Running Time: 103 minutes
Language: French, with English subtitles
Screenwriters: Rebecca Zlotowski, Anne Berest, Gaëlle Macé
Lead Performers: Jodie Foster, Daniel Auteuil, Virginie Elfira
Distribution Company: Sony Pictures Classsics
AWFJ Movie of the Week Panel Members: Sandie Angulo Chen, Betsy Bozdech, Leslie Combemale, Loren King, Cate Marquis, Jennifer Merin, Nell Minow, Sherin Nicole, Liz Whittemore
Other Movies Opening This Week
Edited by Jennifer Merin
