Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Virginie Efira | ... | Sibyl | |
Adèle Exarchopoulos | ... | Margot Vasilis | |
Gaspard Ulliel | ... | Igor | |
Sandra Hüller | ... | Mika | |
Laure Calamy | ... | Edith | |
Niels Schneider | ... | Gabriel | |
Paul Hamy | ... | Etienne | |
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Arthur Harari | ... | Katz |
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Adrien Bellemare | ... | Daniel |
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Jeane Arra-Bellanger | ... | Selma (as Jeane Ara Bellanger) |
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Liv Harari | ... | Livia |
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Lorenzo Lefèbvre | ... | Galotin |
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Aurélien Bellanger | ... | L'éditeur |
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Philip Vormwald | ... | Le patient quitté |
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Henriette Desjonquères | ... | La meneuse AA |
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. Written by Music Box Films
I was somewhat skeptical before entering the theater, thinking it would turn out to be another boring film about white people surrendering themselves to hordes of therapists, french woman suffering from romantic distress and so on. However, the writer/director cleverly managed to create a layered portrayal of the protagonist shrink and the world she lives in - blending in her present life, her past, the fiction novel she's writing and the movie her patient stars in. The script is mature, quirky and unpredictable enough to handle these four layers without becoming pointless and confusing. The performances are stellar, especially of Sandra Huller as the temperamental film director.
There is no dearth of past french films handling similar material. Yet somehow this film appears fresh and profusely entertaining.