Vague Visages’ A Private Life review contains minor spoilers. Rebecca Zlotowski’s 2025 movie features Jodie Foster, Juan Daniel Auteuil and Virginie Efira. Check out the VV home page for more film criticism, movie reviews and film essays.

Jodie Foster, one of Hollywood’s greatest and most awarded performers, would naturally fit into a role normally suited for French actresses Juliette Binoche, Catherine Deneuve and Isabelle Huppert. In Rebecca Zlotowski’s 2025 film A Private Life, she gives an amusingly flustered and edgy performance as Lilian Steiner, a psychiatrist who suspects that one of her longtime patients — someone she had a special affection for — was killed by her husband Simon (Matthieu Amalric in a menacingly fun and wild-eyed performance). Foster’s protagonist is the kind of independent woman who is hard to have a functional relationship with, as she becomes increasingly nervous and self-involved in her own perceptions of reality.

From moment one in A Private Life, it’s clear that Lilian is someone who takes her role as a professional psychiatrist very seriously, to the point where her own feelings about anything else seem alien. This is comedically displayed through the character’s inability to understand why one of her clients quits her service, and also through the uncontrollable tears coming out of her eyes following the death of her patient Paula (Virginie Efira). Also, Lilian meets with a doctor who happens to be her ex-husband, Gabriel (Daniel Auteuil). And so the protagonist’s increased paranoia leads her down a self-made rabbit hole. Zlotowski maintains tension by giving Lilian a mysterious past and a strong emotional tie-in through the personal relationship she had with her late client. But during the protagonist’s visit to a hypnotist friend, she experiences a vision of herself in a band giving a performance to Nazi generals and sitting next to Paula while Simon is the conductor and conspiring to kill them. 

A Private Life Review: Related — NYFF 2025 Review: Stillz’s ‘Barrio Triste’

Zlotowski makes Lilian’s unease palpable and ironic in A Private Life. There is a sense of whimsical irony to the whirlwind of conversations, dinners meetings and stake-outs that Foster’s character juggles as she desperately tries to keep her life as  controlled as possible, all the while ceaselessly peering into the lives of Simon and his family and friends. In the lead role, Foster excels at balancing Lilian’s incessant need to maintain a level of neutrality and control over her emotions while also unravelling in her own mind. The actress gives deep sighs and contemplative wistful looks while communicating the quippy banter and jokes of a professional psychiatrist enamored with her own wit. Amalric, who appears briefly throughout A Private Life, leaves an indelible mark on the film. Simon’s wild-eyed stare of utter contempt at Lilian, who he believes is responsible for his wife’s death, is so comically pervasive that it lingers throughout Zlotowski’s sixth feature.

A Private Life Review: Related — TIFF 2025 Review: Óliver Laxe’s ‘Sirāt’

A Private Life moves along like a breeze. Zlotowski’s best sequences come during Lilian’s two stakeouts at Simon’s house in the woods where he has a mistress, with the camera lingering just long enough to increase the suspense. But even though the first two acts may be enjoyable, the final sequences come across as strangely inert. Zlotowski and her lead actress create a jovial vibe throughout the majority of the film, but A Private Life ultimately becomes lethargic and then putters out. Foster dangles in the midst of it, like an actress who sees the film set disappear while she’s still in her role.

Soham Gadre (@SohamGadre) is a writer/filmmaker based in Washington, D.C. He has contributed to publications such as Bustle, Frameland and Film Inquiry. Soham is currently in production for his first short film. All of his film and writing work can be found at extrasensoryfilms.com.

A Private Life Review: Related — TIFF 2025 Review: Benny Safdie’s ‘The Smashing Machine’