“How many people are in therapy?” Rebecca Zlotowski asked the audience, following the premiere of “A Private Life,” prompting hand raises and knowing laughter.
Before the screening at the New York Film Festival on Sunday, October 6, The Knockturnal caught up with Zlotowski and star Jodie Foster on the red carpet. Although Foster has appeared in other French films, Vie Privée is her first role fully in the French language.
“I was pretty nervous, filled with anxiety about it,” she said.
Foster also shared how she often retreated to Zlotowski’s apartment between takes. “Rebecca had this extraordinary apartment, I don’t even know where it is, but it’s on top of the world. You can see everything—the Eiffel Tower, every monument you could ever want, even a balloon that lights up Paris. It was the perfect place to escape.”
Foster also shared how she often fled to Zlotlowski’s place when the camera was off. “Rebecca had this extraordinary apartment that, I don’t even know where it is, but it’s on top of the world, and you can see everything. So, it’s the place to go for 4th of July, it’s the place to go when the Eiffel Tower lights up, when there’s this, there’s this kind of balloon that lights up in Paris right now that goes up in the air, and you can see it from the apartment and stuff like that. Like every monument you’ve ever wanted to see, you can see it from the apartment, so that’s the place to go. That’s fun.”
When we caught up with Zlotowski herself, she shared how her beloved Paris was as much of a character as Foster’s Lillian.
”You know I’m a Parisian, like raised and born,” she explained, “And I did three films before shooting The City because I was always, you know, I knew it too much and now in private life I have like the idea that this American woman, Paris-based, would have like a dream of Paris, and the dream would be like very bourgeois, part of like Le Parfum, like living the Parisian life So it was easier to have like a filter in between my exception of the city and the one my character would have.”
She was also excited to share her cinematic influences for the film. “Partly like films like with the psychiatrist investigating like this. Roy Scheider, like the Robert Benton movie, which is called, I think it’s Still of the Night in English.”
Expanding on her influences, she also shared that Woody Allen’s Alice was an influence on her work. “There’s definitely like a vibe between Alice, another woman, and another mystery.”
Also, name-dropping the director, Foster described her character as a “Woody Allen-style investigator.”
“Oh, she’s a terrible detective,” she teases. “In case you were wondering, I don’t think it’s going to be a franchise anytime soon. She’s an even worse psychiatrist.”
“A Private Life” is now playing at the New York Film Festival and will be seeing a limited release on January 16, 2026.
