Rebecca Zlotowski says A Private Life gave her more freedom than any of her earlier films, and that freedom shows in the way the story moves between mystery, comedy, psychology, and emotional repair. The French director also says the film let her work with Jodie Foster for the first time, an opportunity she had wanted for years.
In conversation with www.eyeforfilm.co.uk, Zlotowski described the film as a mix of tones rather than a single genre. She said she was able to “have it all” in the writing, while Foster was fully on board with that approach.
Lilian Steiner’s strange spiral
A Private Life follows psychiatrist Lilian Steiner, played by a bilingual Jodie Foster, as she becomes convinced that her patient Paula Cohen-Solal, played by Virginie Efira, did not simply die by suicide. Lilian’s theory leads her to suspect that Paula was murdered first by her daughter Valérie, then by her husband Simon, and that suspicion pulls her ex-husband Gabriel Haddad, played by Daniel Auteuil, back into her life.
Zlotowski said she wanted Lilian to have a clear arc, even if the story itself stays simple. At the start, Lilian is a bad therapist, but by the end she is a better one, and that change is central to the film’s emotional shape.
Humor, Jewish wit, and an awkward heroine
The director said the film’s humor came from a place of recognition rather than ridicule. She compared the tone to Jewish humor, where the joke depends on whether the audience understands the rhythm and the point of view.
That approach fits Lilian, whom Zlotowski described as a difficult but strangely lovable character. She called her a bad therapist, a “cockblocker,” and a bad mother, but said the audience still connects with her.
The film also leans into a more familiar kind of comedy through Lilian’s clashes with her upstairs neighbor. Zlotowski said she wanted viewers to laugh with the character and the situation, not at her expense.
Why the film feels like a classic mystery
Zlotowski said she thought about Hitchcock while making the film, along with Fritz Lang, Lynch, Fellini, and Paul Thomas Anderson. She linked the mood to Forties cinema, especially Nightmare Alley and Spellbound, where psychoanalysis and symbols were part of the thrill.
She also said one of the most interesting challenges was building the inner lives and past lives of the characters in a way that felt cinematic. For her, that meant creating the film’s unconscious as much as its plot.
The director acknowledged that some viewers may find the film confusing, but she sees that as part of its freedom rather than a flaw. She said the movie can be watched as a murder mystery, a marriage comedy, or a Jewish psychological drama, and that the audience is free to choose how to read it.
Jodie Foster and Daniel Auteuil shape the emotional core
Zlotowski said Daniel Auteuil brings a warmth that changes how the audience sees Lilian, especially because the character is more sympathetic when she is loved by him. She also praised his ability to move between comedy and drama, calling him a legend of comedy in France.
She pointed to one rain-soaked car scene as especially French in its emotional texture, with Auteuil asking Lilian for a cigarette and speaking about their separation. The chemistry between Auteuil and Foster, she said, made them feel like an instant classic couple.
A director who keeps changing by staying obsessive
Zlotowski said she feels obsessive and believes she makes the same film each time, even though each one ends up looking different. She compared her process to directors such as Hong Sang-soo and Mia Hansen-Løve, and said she admires Sidney Lumet for making no two films alike.
Her own method is different from Lumet’s because she writes to find the story, and she tends to work with many of the same collaborators. Even so, she said the results keep shifting as her characters grow older and take on new fears, desires, and obsessions.
That sense of change also reflects where she is in life. Zlotowski said her characters are now mothers with different concerns, and she thinks that evolution gives her films something new while keeping her creative voice intact.
A Private Life is in UK cinemas on Friday 26 June.