Sibyl (2019)

A jaded psychotherapist returns to her first passion of becoming a writer.

Director:

Justine Triet

Writers:

Arthur Harari (screenplay), David H. Pickering (English dialogue)

Stars:

Virginie Efira, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Gaspard Ulliel

3 wins & 11 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Virginie Efira	...	Sibyl (le psychothérapeute)
Adèle Exarchopoulos	...	Margot Vasilis (le actrice)
Gaspard Ulliel	...	Igor (amant de Margot)
Sandra Hüller	...	Mika (le réalisateur)
Laure Calamy	...	Edith (soeur de Sybil)
Niels Schneider	...	Gabriel (amant de Sibyl)
Paul Hamy	...	Etienne (mari de Sybil)
Arthur Harari	...	Katz (le docteur)
Adrien Bellemare	...	Daniel (enfant patient)
Jeane Arra-Bellanger	...	Selma (fille aînée de Sybil) (as Jeane Ara Bellanger)
Liv Harari	...	Livia (fille cadette de Sybil)
Lorenzo Lefèbvre	...	Galotin (assistant de Mika)
Aurélien Bellanger	...	L'éditeur
Philip Vormwald	...	Le patient quitté
Henriette Desjonquères	...	La meneuse AA

Storyline

A sly, sultry character study from filmmaker Justine Triet, SIBYL follows a psychotherapist (Virginie Efira) who decides to quit her practice and return to writing instead. As Sibyl starts dropping patients, she begins to struggle with excess time and a lack of inspiration--until she gets a call from Margot (Adèle Exarchopoulos), a young actress wrapped up in a dramatic affair with her costar, Igor (Gaspard Ulliel), who happens to be married to the film's director (Sandra Hüller). Becoming further enmeshed in Margot's life, Sibyl starts to blur past and present, fiction with reality, and the personal with the professional as she begins to use Margot's life as source material for her novel.

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Plot Keywords:

nudity | female nudity | bare breasts | sex scene | one word title | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

French visa # 148516.

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Connections

References Dirty Dancing (1987)

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Soundtracks

La rua Madureira
Written by Nino Ferrer
(1969)

User Reviews

Overstuffed with ideas which are plenty but never quite make it whole

Sibyl wants to stop her psychiatry practice in order to write the next great French novel. But not before she agrees to treat a pregnant girl who is in love with a famous actor. Fast forward a few weeks, and Sybil is suddenly in the middle of a Love triangle (or is it trapezium?), that opens old wounds and make her question her perception of reality. Who needs therapy now?

Independent director Justine Triet has been praised by the critics for her previous works that underline social and political problems. Here we deal with a crisis of a domestic nature and one wonders if the film is based on the director's personal experience. SYBIL cannot be called feminist even though it features plenty of strong women making tough choices. The problem is that those female characters are all despicable and hardly inspire any sympathy from the viewer. The story is patchworky and, while intriguing, it takes a long time to get to the meat of things. Erotic scenes while well made seem irrelevant and the plot itself is hard to define - it's like it was re-written in the last minute. And we are left wondering what it was all about.

Filled with great performances from all Involved, and with its decent cinematography, the movie mostly suffers from the story's inconsistencies and a lack of focus. Overstuffed with ideas which are plenty but never quite make it whole the film struggles to find its identity and borderlines on any piece of entertainment's worst enemy - which is boredom!

Details

Country:

France Belgium

Language:

French English Italian

Release Date:

11 September 2020 (USA)

Also Known As:

Sibyl

Filming Locations:

Paris, France

Box Office

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$2,943,278

Company Credits

Production Co:

France 2 Cinéma, Les Films de Pierre, Page 114

Technical Specs

Runtime:

100 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital (as Dolby 5.1)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1