“La Vérité” in the cinema: Catherine Deneuve succeeds in captivating a satirical look at the world of the giant egos

In his first French film Catherine Deneuve, the Japanese master director Hirokazu Kore-eda gave a prime role: "La Vérité - Live and let lie".

• Catherine Deneuve shines in "La Vérité - live and let lie"
• Tricky game with expectations
• "La Vérité" has an old-fashioned craftsmanship

French cinema can still do a few things that only Hollywood can do otherwise. It can attract a celebrated filmmaker from abroad and offer him a free ticket for something special, the famous "carte blanche". For example, to stage a legendary film star is blown away by the glory of a great film nation. And a cinephile audience that will feel such a pairing as a sensation: Hirokazu Kore-eda meets Catherine Deneuve .

The Japanese had just got the golden palm for his film "Shoplifters" when he gathered some of the biggest stars of French cinema for his first foreign film, including Juliette Binoche and Ludivine Sagnier . And the form and theme of “La Vérité” are also decidedly French: with hints of Truffaut's classic “The American Night”, Kore-eda bows before playing with appearance and being in a film world that is in love with itself.

"La Vérité": Around Catherine Deneuve everyone else looks pale

Catherine Deneuve plays an aging diva who, after fifty years in the industry, can seamlessly transfer the art of manipulation into her family life. Her daughter, played by Binoche, herself a successful screenwriter, traveled from the USA to publish her memoirs with the title "The Truth", which was not even meant ironically - and fails miserably in trying to unmask one or the other lie in her life. No wonder - as it turns out more and more, the film author has been able to soufflate some beautiful lies for her mother herself.

Kore-eda introduces us to Deneuve's film character right from the start in an interview scene. The fact that she doesn't even have the names of some of her companions ready does not necessarily suggest a weakening memory. Deneuve succeeds in captivating a satirical look at the world of the giant egos. A short time later, her personal manager takes his hat off after decades of sacrificing work. "She didn't even mention me in the book. It's like I never lived. "

"La Vérité": literally withers to a part of the prop

If Kore-eda's intention was to match the style of a French tabloid comedy, he would have done better than many fans of his tragicomic masterpieces would like. At the premiere last year at the Venice Film Festival , “La Vérité” was well received; one misses the fragile and the quiet, patiently played tone of his Japanese films. But there is poetry. For example, if she likes to let her granddaughter believe that she is a witch and has magic powers: “Do you see the turtle in the garden? She used to be a man. "

For more than five decades, Catherine Deneuve has never disappeared from the screen, but for years she has not been able to pull her register like this. Everyone around her looks correspondingly pale - Ethan Hawke literally atrophies to part of the prop as a son-in-law.

“La Vérité: Catherine Deneuve juggles virtuoso with untruths and half-truths

La Vérité - Live and let lie. F 2019. Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda. 106 minutes.

Nevertheless, a closer look reveals the double bottom that made Kore-eda's previous film "Shoplifters" * such a tricky game with expectations. Turned to 35mm and cut personally by the director, "La Vérité" has an old-fashioned craftsmanship that stands before the story of lies like its own truth. Sometimes you feel reminded of the bulky charm of Alain Resnais and his Alan Ayckburn films.

In fact, Kore-eda can write at least as good dialogues - and stage them to maximum effect. One is about actresses whose first and last names begin with the same letter; when Brigitte Bardot is mentioned , Deneuve's character can only shrug. Who was that again? Bertolt Brecht called Hollywood the market where lies are sold. In his almost philosophical homage, Kore-eda celebrates the film world for nothing else: virtuoso like a magician juggles the diva with untruths and half-truths. And if she lets her granddaughter believe she can witch, that's not even a lie.

By Daniel Kothenschulte

* fr.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editors network