After the worldwide success of the 2018 Cannes Palme d’Or-winning Shoplifters, master auteur Kore-eda Hirokazu's wry and charming new dramedy THE TRUTH pairs French screen icons Catherine Deneuve and Juliette Binoche for the first time, as a celebrated actress and her estranged daughter whose tentative reunion offers an opportunity to either repair or irrevocably fracture their relationship.
Fabienne (Deneuve) is a star; a much loved, larger-than-life icon of French cinema. When she publishes her memoirs, her screenwriter daughter Lumir (Binoche) returns to Paris from New York for the occasion, with her struggling actor husband Hank (Ethan Hawke) and their inquisitive young daughter Charlotte (Clémentine Grenier) in tow. It comes as no surprise to Lumir that everything in her grand childhood home still revolves around her mother, and as she begins to read Fabienne’s book it becomes clear it’s riddled with omissions and embellishments – especially with regard to her relationship with the great artistic rival of her past, Sarah Mondavan.
Fabienne herself has no time for explanations and small talk; she’s preparing for her next film, a science-fiction drama, cast alongside a rising new talent (Manon Clavel) touted as ‘the next Sarah Mondavan’. When Fabienne’s long-suffering assistant unexpectedly quits, she and Lumir are reluctantly forced into an awkward working relationship, with Lumir revisiting the same film studios where she spent countless hours as a child. As the on and off-set worlds begin to amusingly – and movingly – intertwine, suppressed emotions can no longer be kept in check…
Premiering to great acclaim as the opening night of the 2019 Venice Film Festival, THE TRUTH is a very special cinema experience: a gentle and moving exploration of reality and fiction, family, performance, and the great spectacle of life. It’s a love letter to mothers and daughters everywhere.
Thursday 26th December
107 min
PG
Dramedy
