La Verite (aka The Truth) (2019)

With her actor husband (Ethan Hawke) and a small daughter (Clementine Grenier) in tow, a screenwriter (Juliette Binoche) living in America returns to France on the occasion of her mother (Catherine Deneuve), a famous film actress, publishing her memoirs. A vain and self absorbed woman, her memoirs are lacking in the truth including her relationship with her daughter. Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda (STILL WALKING), the film can't help but recollect another film with a similar storyline, Bergman's AUTUMN SONATA. But where Bergman was brutal, Kore-eda is gentler. You keep waiting for the big confrontation scene where mother and daughter bare their souls but it never happens. What LA VERITE provides is a terrific role for Deneuve and boy, does she sink her teeth into it. A woman so focused on her career that she plows through family, lovers and peers like a train; letting nothing stand in her path. Binoche's role is more reactive but she doesn't get in Deneuve's way. Thematically, it's not very fresh but Kore-eda imparts a perceptive sheen to the narrative. With Ludivine Sagnier and Manon Clavel.