A Private Life - Vie privée

NOTICE FRENCH SPOKEN, ONLY FINNISH AND SWEDISH SUBTITLES

A Private Life (French: Vie privée) is a 2025 French mystery thriller film directed and co-written by Rebecca Zlotowski, starring Jodie Foster, alongside Daniel Auteuil, Virginie Efira, Mathieu Amalric, Vincent Lacoste, and Luàna Bajrami.

Dr. Lilian Steiner is a Jewish-American psychiatrist, working from her Paris home. Her patient Pierre ends their sessions after he finally quits smoking; crediting a hypnotist, he threatens to sue Lilian for years of unsuccessful therapy. Another patient, Paula, has died, and her daughter Valérie invites Lilian to join the family for the wake, but Paula's husband Simon furiously demands that she leave.

Lilian has a strained relationship with her son Julien, who helps her order disks for the MiniDisc recorder she uses to document her sessions. Struck by persistent and uncharacteristic crying, she reaches out to her ex-husband Gabriel, an ophthalmologist. Valérie reveals that her mother committed suicide with pills prescribed by Lilian, and gives her a prescription with a mysterious message found in Paula's hand.

Fed up with her tears, Lilian visits the hypnotist, who leads her in a surreal hypnotherapy session. The skeptical Lilian experiences a vision of herself as a male Jewish cellist performing in Nazi-occupied Paris; Paula is a fellow musician and Lilian’s pregnant mistress, while Simon is their conductor, armed with a gun. The hypnotist assures Lilian that she is cured and refuses payment, but Lilian accuses her of making an antisemitic joke.