I will try the impossible, namely to write about the penultimate film of Roman Polanski, ignoring his controversial personality and biography. In writing the screenplay for ‘Based on a True Story‘ (original title in French is ‘D’apres une histoire vraie‘), made in 2017, Polanski collaborated with the writer Delphine de Vigan who wrote the novel that inspired the film, a novel that received one of the prestigious awards of the French literary world in 2015, and with screenwriter and director Olivier Assayas, himself author of excellent psychological thrillers. The result is quite satisfactory in my opinion, but not very original. The story seems to borrow ideas and snippets of characters from many other films – something from ‘Misery‘ (the heroine is a writer whose life is taken over by someone who wants to control her writing), something from the Bourne movies and their games. identity, and something even from Polanski himself, one of the heroines being a ‘ghost writer’ just like in his 2010 film. The plot is not terribly original, but Polanski‘s style and directing hand are visible, even if the tools in his kit seem to be slightly blunt.
Is it a ghost story? At one point I also asked myself this question. Delphine, the main heroine of the film (Emmanuelle Seigner), is a famous writer. At a launch of her previous book, she meets an admirer (Eva Green) whose name is Elle (maybe from Elisabeth, maybe the generic Elle = She, maybe just L.). The slightly younger woman seems to be the ideal friend and perhaps the soulmate needed in the creative crisis before writing the first pages of her next book. Elle is a ‘ghost writer’, meaning she writes books signed by personalities, other famous women. The closeness between the two women is becoming more and more toxic. Elle begins to rummage through Delphine’s life, to share a personal biography that seems too tragic to be true. Friendship or hidden goals? The relationship between the two seems to mix empathy with the desire to control, the writing rivalry with a dangerous game of identities.
The two actresses are on screen almost permanently together. The relationship between them involves curiosity and fear and the tension is built as very sincere and transparent Delphine reveals her secrets receiving in return from Elle a life story that seems to be descending from the ambiguous space of imagination or maybe nightmares. There are ‘logical holes’ in the story, but they seem rather intentional, because maybe we don’t see everything, or maybe not everything that we see is real. Polanski describes with authenticity the French literary and intellectual environment, with the fascination for successful writers who are media personalities as is not often the case elsewhere in the world. His respect for the profession of writer is visible, and the dilemmas of the creator in front of the blank page, still unwritten, are perfectly brought to the screen. As in good thriller movies, we will watch a car trip at night, and the story will have as setting a villa in an isolated place which can be controlled by shadows, criminals, maybe even ghosts. The gradation of the tension did not disappoint me, and I also liked the fact that the screenwriters did not try to explain everything, leaving room for imagination and discussion.’Based on a True Story‘ may not be Polanski‘s best film, and it feels like he’s reusing, as in a collage, materials and ideas from other books and movies (some of his own), but in the end it’s a good psychological thriller, which I believe will not disappoint the fans of the genre or of the director.