A Private Life.

Billed as a mystery thriller, you could throw in other genres as well they are all seamlessly woven into the engaging vehicle for Jodie Foster. The style of the film would be almost unrecognizable to American fans of the mystery thriller oeuvre. Being stylish, literary with a languid pace (not a single car chase). Restaurant scenes, dreamy looks over wine bottles and yet beneath all of this there is an Actual mystery. Lilian Steiner (Jodie Foster) a shrink woking in Paris believes one of her patients who committed suicide was actually murdered. Through an unbelievably byzantine path of plot twists and red herrings she tries to find the culprit, which might in fact indirectly include her. An estranged son, divorced husband, pregnant daughter, a hypnotist, a recently discovered inheritance, phantom mistresses and romances all add to this tagliatelle, which ends up mainly thanks to Foster to keep your attention somehow on the progression of the tale. It is after all a French film with Foster speaking in a more than passable dialect. 328 étoiles

The Christophers.

This terrifically intricate engrossing film masterfully directed by Stephen Soderbergh, in which once famous but now fading painter brilliantly portrayed be the incomparable Ian McKellen long ago painted series of portraits of his then lover. In failing health and soon to die they lie unfinished in his attic. His nefarious offspring played by James Corden  and Jessica Gunning (of baby reindeer fame). hire an artist arrestingly portrayed by Michaela Coe to pose as his assistant in order to finish the paintings and sell them for a fortune after his death. More savvy than he lets on he discovers the plot and has the assistant help to destroy them. Rather than let him carry out his plan she paints a series of forgeries and they are the ones destroyed. All the while a genuine friendship developes between the two. She confesses what she has done and allows him to deface the originals with the intent of eliminating any value they might have. The plot continues to thicken with further forgeries, the baddies scheme fails, the unrecognized painter/ friend/assistant is redeemed and some sort of justice prevails. The entire film rests on Ian McKellen’s  mesmerizing performance. Michaela Coel as McKellen’s assistant  is a standout.

435 stars