The presence of Catherine Deneuve or Juliette Binoche in the cast would be reason enough to make me run to see a movie. ‘La vérité‘ (the title in English is ‘The Truth‘) made in 2010 gave me the double opportunity to see both actresses in the lead roles and in addition the film adaptation and direction belong to Hirokazu Koreeda, the formidable Japanese director whose films ‘Like Father, Like Son‘ and ‘Shoplifters‘ I consider among the best Japanese films of the last decade. Now, in his first film made outside of Japan, Koreeda manages to create another subtle and emotional cinematic story, which gives the viewers a an occasion for thought and joy, and in addition brings out the best of the two excellent French actresses, each of them creating some of the best roles in their recent careers.
Fabienne Dangeville (Catherine Deneuve) is a famous film actress, still active in her 70s. A recently published memoir includes enough embellishments, inaccuracies, and omissions to exasperate many around her, including her personal assistant for more than 40 years, her daughter Lumir (Juliette Binoche) who came to visit New York together with her American husband Hank (Ethan Hawke) and grand-daughter (delicious and smart like most children in the movies), and Pierre, Lumir’s father, from whom she is separated. Are these omissions due to her memory problems that are starting to become more frequent, or are they rather intentional, part of the image building game that she continues to practice despite her age? The film accompanies the encounter between the actress and her daughter and her family, as well as the filming of a science fiction production in which Fabienne plays the role of the oldest incarnation of the daughter of a woman who remains forever young. It is an opportunity for the screenwriter to expand and mirror the debate about the effects of the passage of time in the relationship between mother and daughter.
There are quite a few indications that Fabienne Dangeville’s character is conceived as a kind of alter-ego of Catherine Deneuve herself. There is an absent character in ‘La vérité‘ but who is permanently in the memory of Fabienne and Lumir – that of the actress, friend and rival who died many years ago in a car accident. We can’t help but remember Françoise Dorléac, Catherine Deneuve‘s older sister, who died in a car accident shortly after playing together in ‘The Young Girls of Rochefort‘, just as we can’t help but notice the trophy table in the house of the actress on whom exactly two Cesar awards are exposed. Director Hirokazu Koreeda also creates a delicate and intelligent intrigue here, with many nuances and emotions, with characters who radiate empathy precisely through of their human weaknesses. The actors, as always in his films, have the opportunity for special creations, and I think that Catherine Deneuve and Juliette Binoche both achieve in ‘La vérité‘ two special roles, excelling in the scenes in which they both appear, scenes in which the sensitivity and professionalism of each complements the other. Ethan Hawke‘s presence is also remarkable, as he is cast in a very different supporting role from the ones he is used to. In his first film directed outside of Japan, Koreeda fits perfectly into the Parisian atmosphere, including that of film production (we also have a ‘film in film’ story here) and only one frame, of the garden with a cherry blossom filmed through a window that frames it, it reminds where the director comes from. ‘La vérité‘ is an intelligent, beautiful and sensitive film about age, about memory, about the relations between mothers and daughters, about the passage of time and about the art of actors. Highly recommended.