A Private Life (dir. Rebecca Zlotowski)

by Jack Martin | Jun 27, 2026

Certificate: 15

Running Time: 103 mins

UK Distributor: Altitude Films

UK Release Date: 26 June 2026

WHO’S IN A PRIVATE LIFE?

Jodie Foster, Daniel Auteuil, Virginie Efira, Mathieu Amalric, Vincent Lacoste, Luana Bajrami

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

Rebecca Zlotowski (director, writer), Anne Berest (writer), Frédéric Jouve (producer), George Lechaptois (cinematographer), Géraldine Mangenot (editor)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

A psychoanalyst (Foster) investigates the apparent suicide of her patient…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON A PRIVATE LIFE?

In 1976, whilst attending the Cannes Film Festival for her big breakout role in Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver, 13-year-old Jodie Foster gained significant attention not just for her provocative performance as a child prostitute, but also for her ability to fluently answer the questions of French journalists at the film’s press conference. Foster, having been educated at a French-speaking prep school, would only continue to excel at the language as her career progressed, occasionally acting in French productions and even dubbing over her own voice for the local dub of her English-language movies.

A lifetime of French fluency puts her in a prime position to deliver in writer-director Rebecca Zlotowski’s A Private Life, and deliver she does as the Oscar-winning actor utilises both her movie star charm and incredible handle on the language to endlessly watchable degrees. However, the film itself simply isn’t able to match her talents, for as zippy as it may feel Zlotowski’s film ultimately comes up short on intrigue, leading to a less than satisfactory payoff.

Foster stars as Lilian Steiner, an American psychologist living in Paris who’s caught off guard when she learns that one of her patients, a woman named Paula (an underutilised Virginie Efira), has suddenly committed suicide. A visit to her wake ends with her being screamed away by Paula’s emotional husband Simon (Mathieu Amalric), which along with an impromptu visit to a hypnotherapist sparks a burning curiosity in Lilian’s mind: was Paula, in fact, murdered by none other than her husband? Thus, she becomes determined to find out the truth, with her ex-husband Gabriel (Daniel Auteuil) brought in as the Watson to her amateur Sherlock, only to find that the facts surrounding Paula’s untimely demise are far from elementary.

Present in virtually every single scene, Foster really does most of the heavy lifting for this film. Beyond the fact that her French is pretty much flawless, to where it actually sounds jarring when every now and then she switches to her native English, the actor delivers a performance that perfectly matches the light-hearted tone that Zlotowski is aiming for, including moments of screwball zaniness as she and her hopelessly devoted ex attempt to find discarded evidence, but also quieter instances where you can clearly see the cogs working overtime in Lilian’s mind. It’s a genuinely great performance, in which Foster keeps the viewer constantly engaged as she takes them, and also her character, on an emotional rollercoaster where you can’t quite tell is going to come her way next.

She is also powerful enough to generate chemistry with almost everyone she acts opposite, especially Auteuil with whom she provides some of the film’s most genuinely sweet moments, as well as elevating a few of the more amusing back-and-forths in Zlotowski’s script. Even when the film gets a bit more abstract, like an extended sequence where we literally descend into her character’s subconscious, Foster understands the assignment to a degree that she makes the sequence feel all the more haunting, further pulling us into the depths of this character in ways that Zlotowski might not have thought of when creating her.

However, A Private Life struggles to be memorable beyond Foster’s exemplary central performance. The mystery at its core is ever so slight, leaving it easy to predict certain reveals or identify any potential red herrings long before the film confirms them as such. It can lead to events feeling superfluous or, worse, dull to watch, since not only can you see particular developments coming a good distance away, but it also holds your hand tightly so that it can spell out exactly what the bigger picture is. Not that it makes a difference, for where the film eventually leads turns out to be rather underwhelming, as nearly every loose end is tangled up in a slightly confusing bundle that exposes the thin nature of this narrative. Nobody is asking for layers one might expect from Agatha Christie in a narrative like this, but a little depth goes a long way and sadly Zlotowski isn’t able to thicken this particular plot.

While her script isn’t strong enough to compliment the efforts of her lead actor, Zlotowski at least makes up for some of that in her directorial vision. She gives the film a lively pace as we zoom from one thing to the next, enough to jolt the viewer awake for long enough to at least see how this particular situation pans out. For the most part, she’s also consistent with tone, delivering comedic moments when they need to be present and a bit of suspense in the right places, with the two only occasionally overlapping to a point where it starts to feel wildly unsure of its own intentions. It’s also a handsomely made film, with some decent cinematography capturing the characters’ borderline obsessive intentions up close on their faces and editing that sweetens the illusion that more is happening at a persistent rate than it probably is in this story.

But there’s little denying that the reason A Private Life works at all is because of Jodie Foster. Even fifty years after wowing those Cannes reporters with her fantastic grasp on the French language, she continues to exhibit a profound fluency that helps her fit extraordinarily well into the Parisian atmosphere, all while flaunting her unique brand of star power that has carried her all through her earlier acting jobs and well beyond. It’s too bad, then, that the film which allows her to do all of that is only okay at best.

SO, TO SUM UP…

A Private Life benefits enormously from the presence of Jodie Foster, who delivers a great performance that allows her to flaunt her flawless French fluency, leaving her to solely carry Rebecca Zlotowski’s all too slight and ultimately underwhelming narrative that, while well-made, is not strong enough to match its talented lead.