With writer/director Hirokazu Kore-eda once again returning to TIFF with The Truth (La vérité) we get a film that shows us what it might have been like if Yasujiro Ozu had gotten a chance to play in the streets of Paris while still being true to his own personal storytelling style.
Fabienne (Catherine Deneuve) is a star of French cinema. When she publishes her memoirs, her daughter Lumir (Juliette Binoche) returns from New York to Paris with her husband (Ethan Hawke) and young child. The reunion between mother and daughter will quickly turn to confrontation: truths will be told, accounts settled and confessions made.
While still within his familiar wheelhouse, Kore-eda allows himself a certain degree of whimsy and attitude as he truly morphs and embraces his Parisenne surroundings in the film. It has a lush feel to it all as the sun pours into the house where the bulk of the movie takes place but never once undercuts the very French sense of deliciousness with its attitude.
Deneuve and Binoche are spectacular and in this film about relationships and our relationship to the memory of them they both allow us to see that nothing is truly as it seems.
The ultimate magic of where this film truly lies is in the genuine gusto that he puts on screen, particularly with Deneuve as the fading star needing to find peace with passing on her legacy. That’s where The Truth truly lies, and Kore-eda makes it a glorious thing to witness.
- Release Date: 9/9/2019
