Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda
Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Juliette Binoche, Ethan Hawke, Clementine Grenier, Ludivine Sagnier, Roger Van Hool
Distributor: Palace Films
Runtime: 107 mins. Reviewed in Dec 2019

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Rating notes: Mild themes, sexual references and coarse language

This French film in the English language is written and directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, who directed the Cannes award-winning (Palme d’Or), movie, “The Shoplifters” in 2018. It features two famous French actresses, Catherine Deneuve and Juliette Binoche.

The film tells the story of a difficult reunion between actress mother, Fabienne Dangeville (Catherine Deneuve), who, in the story the film tells, is a legendary French actress. Her daughter, Lumir (Juliette Binoche), husband, Hank (Ethan Hawke), and their child, Charlotte (Clementine Grenier) arrive on Fabienne’s doorstep to share in the publication of Fabienne’s book. It is the first movie that Kore-eda has made outside his native Japan,

Fabienne is a star of the French cinema and greatly admired and respected. However, she has a conflicted relationship with Lumir, her daughter, who screen-writes for movies. Lumir and her husband, Hank (Ethan Hawke) return to Paris with Charlotte at a time when Fabienne has published a memoir (called “The Truth), which is full of inaccuracies. Fabienne is also completing a sci-fi movie about a daughter who never grows old, titled “Memories of My Mother”, which depicts a mother who goes on ageing, while the daughter doesn’t. Aspects of the movie relate integrally to real-life mother-daughter conflicts, and cause Fabienne to frequently block in her acting.

Fabienne’s book stirs up childhood resentments. Lumir knows that what the book is saying is not true. The confrontation between mother and daughter reveals disturbing truths, and feelings of affection and resentment are expressed that fan the conflict between mother and daughter in ways that are both personal and professional. Lumir resents her mother for choosing her career over family responsibilities.The conflict between them exposes the dilemmas of an actress, as well as supplying insights about family dynamics, and the unreliable nature of memory. The film also explores the self-absorbed nature of celebrity status, but it pursues its themes gently.

As in “Shoplifters” the film is directed warmly by Hirokazu Kore-eda. This is a drama about the lies that family members knowingly say to each other, and expertly captures the conflict that family members show to each other. It is a meditative movie about fragments of family life, that is full of moments that are both joyful and sad. Lumir has grown accustomed to living in her famous mother’s shadow, but can’t find truth in the self-serving way her mother describes herself in her own book. She thinks her mother fails to express a truth she is not willing to own.

Handsomely and elegantly produced, this is a refined movie that shows two great French actresses at work. In the clash between Deneuve and Binoche, Deneuve dominates, but Kore-eda is the person responsible for the movie’s scripting and he supplies her with the means to do that. The film amply shows two great performances and both actresses do their best to show that family grievances sometimes die hard, and human recollections of the past can’t really be trusted.

This is a film that accumulates strength as the movie progresses in its revelation of the subtleties and intricacies of family relationships, especially those between mother and daughter. Ethan Hawke takes a background role as a second-rate actor who lies to his wife so that she can love him a little better. This is not a movie about men. It is about two strong women.

This European film entertainingly explores the elusive nature of “truth” which can be unwittingly and knowingly distorted. It is a film about memory fallibility which it argues is part of the human condition. It insightfully sheds light on the separation of acting from reality, and the viewer is left intriguingly with the question, “Is it (what you have seen) the truth, or not?” This is a movie that leaves you with a great deal to think about as you exit from  the cinema.

Peter W. Sheehan is Associate of the Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting.