NON-FICTION – Review

Juliette Binoche stars as an actress married to an editor at a distinguished French publishing house, in writer/director Olivier Assayas’s latest film NON-FICTION. Assayas is known for smart, emotionally sharp dramatic films such as THE CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA and PERSONAL SHOPPER, but in NON-FICTION, he takes a lighter, comic approach, while still having something smart and sly to say about contemporary life.

In NON-FICTION, the discussions focus on books and publishing but whether it is a sex comedy with commentary on the future of literature and publishing, or a commentary on that with a side of sex comedy, isn’t really clear. Nor does it matter. Either way, the film is a delight – assuming you like both French bedroom comedy and witty conversations about the future for books in a digital world. Much of that discussion takes place in bed, at dinner parties or in restaurants and bars, as these financially-comfortable Parisians try to figure out the future for literature. They live in a kind of bubble, part of Assayas’ winking humor.

There is a lot of talking in this film but what marvelous dialog – smart, far-reaching, insightful and intriguing conversations about literature and publishing in a world of digital media, Twitter and e-readers, against a backdrop of a changing world. Or maybe one that “the more it changes, the more it remains the same,” as the saying goes.

Radiant and brilliant as ever, Juliette Binoche stars as Selena, the actress wife of Alain (Guillaume Canet), an elegantly-dressed editor at a revered old publishing house. One of Alain’s longtime writers is Leonard (a very funny Vincent Macaigne), a disheveled mess of a man whose appearance is the very opposite of polished Alain. Despite his rumpled appearance, Leonard’s novels are based on his own thinly-disguised romantic adventures. It is an example of Assayas’ sly humor that the dumpy Leonard is the one writing about his romances, and also that gorgeous Selena is secretly having an affair with him. But this is a French film, so of course Alain is having his own secret affair, with Laure (Christa Theret) the young business school grad the company brought on to handle “digital transition.” Meanwhile, Leonard lives with Valerie (comedian Nora Hamzawi, in a nice dramatic debut), the idealistic assistant to a socialist politician. It’s very French.

The French title of the film translates as “Double Lives,” which is actually a more apt title if less a literary allusion. Leonard calls his barely-fictionalized books “auto fiction.” When Selena’s husband Alain tells her Leonard has brought him a new book, she worries that her husband will figure out she is the inspiration for one of the characters. But Leonard has put him off the scent by hinting that another woman, a news anchor, is the inspiration. It hardly matters, as Alain is not very taken with Leonard’s new book and declines to publish it. Meanwhile, Selena worries that she is hurting her acting career if she signs up for a fourth season of the cop show she is starring in. The show is called “Collusion” but everyone calls it “Collision.”

There is a lot of talking in this film, so a lot of subtitles to read. But such engrossing conversations, touching on technology trends across several years, which blurs the time period. Blogging, Twitter, e-books, publishing on demand and other topic are all discussed, with some characters lamenting the death of reading while others maintain it is an age when there is more reading and writing than ever, just online, and tweets are like haiku. People reference literary figures and thought but also bandy about terms like “fake news”and mention films like“Fast and Furious,” in discussions that are both thought-provoking and slyly tongue-in-cheek.

The breath of the conversations are bracing, far-ranging and sometimes ridiculous but always interesting. At the same time these people talk, they go about their comfortable lives, in endless rounds of dinner parties or fashionable restaurants, disconnected from more ordinary concerns. The one character who is grounded in the real world is, in a sly ironic twist, Valerie, who works for a politician.

Sly humor runs throughout this playful, intelligent film. Like in his dramas, the characters have weighty, serious conversations about contemporary culture and life, but here those conversations might take place in bed or around a dinner table. Juliette, a classically trained actress, worries about signing up for a fourth season of the TV cop show she’s starring in. The show is called “Collusion” but everyone think it is called “Collision.” Leonard resets one of the sexual encounters in his novel from a movie theater showing “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” to a screening of the art-house drama “White Ribbon” because it sounds more classy, even if the film is about the rise of the Nazis which gives the book’s sex scene a creepy subtext. The characters discuss which actors they can get to read for audio books, and someone suggests Juliette Binoche for one – with Binoche right there in the scene. It is both funny and weird.

For those who like French sex comedy and books, Olivier’s clever sly comedy NON-FICTION is a treat not to miss. NON-FICTION, in French with English subtitles, opens Friday,June 14, at the Plaza Frontenac Cinema.

RATING: 4 1/2 out of 5 stars