Daniel Auteuil – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

A PRIVATE LIFE – Review by Susan Granger

April 6, 2026April 11, 2026 Susan Granger A Private Life, Anne Berest, Daniel Auteuil, jodie foster, mathieu Amalric, Rebecca Zlotowski, Sophie Guillemin, Virginie Efira

Not one of Jodie Foster’s best films but unusual because – in her protagonist performance – she speaks impeccable French, making A Private Life more of a curiosity than a ‘must see.’ When Paris-based American psychoanalyst Lilian Steiner (Foster) learns that her patient of nine years committed suicide, she sets out to prove that she was actually murdered, enlisting help from her ex-husband. While it’s not the first time Foster has acted in French, it’s the most significant role in the language that she’s ever played, working with a director – Rebecca Zlotowski – who co-wrote the script with Anne Berest with her in mind.

Movie of the Week

MOTW January 16, 2026: A PRIVATE LIFE

January 11, 2026January 13, 2026 Jennifer Merin A Private Life, betsy bozdech, Cate Marquis, Daniel Auteuil, jennifer merin, jodie foster, leslie combemale, liz whittemore, loren king, mathieu Amalric, motw, Movie of the Week, nell minow, Rebecca Zlotowski, sandie angulo chen, sherin nicole, Simon Cohen-Solal, Virginie Efira

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.

Festivals Reviews

A PRIVATE LIFE (NYFF 2025) – Review by Margaret Barton-Fumo

September 30, 2025October 10, 2025 Margaret Barton-Fumo A Private Life, Daniel Auteuil, Frederick Wiseman, french films, Jodi Foster, NYFF 2025, Rebecca Zlotowski, Vie Privée

A Private Life is an engaging but purposefully jumbled film, following Jodi Foster’s Dr. Lilian Steiner, a confused expat psychoanalyst whose life turns upside-down when one of her patients unexpectedly commits suicide. Living and working in a gorgeous, book-filled Parisian apartment, Lilian tends to her patients distractedly, relying perhaps too heavily on her outdated mini-disc recorder. Abruptly dumped by her longstanding patient Pierre in favor of a hypnotist who apparently helped him quit smoking, Lilian handles the sudden rejection with a slightly befuddled ease—but when she discovers that another one of her patients, Paula has recently died, her reaction is more profound.

Festivals Reviews

A PRIVATE LIFE (TIFF 2025) Review by Leslie Combemale

September 6, 2025September 6, 2025 Leslie Combemale A Private Life, Daniel Auteuil, french films, Jodi Foster, Rebecca Zlotowski, TIFF 2025, Vie Privée

A Private Life is a genre-bending mashup of an absurdist comedy, a romance, a murder mystery, and a surreal examination of self and mortality, It follows expat therapist Lilian as she falls down an emotional and intellectual rabbit hole, the result of losing a longterm client to suicide. A stoic woman who takes self control to the logical absurdity, she finds she can’t stop crying.