Synopsis
Delphine is the author of an autobiographical novel that has become a bestseller. Exhausted by the promotional tour, just when she feels out of place, paralyzed by the idea of having to start writing again, she meets Elle, a young, attractive, intelligent, intuitive woman who seems to understand her better than anyone.
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Cast
- Emmanuelle SeignerDelphine
- Eva GreenElle
- Vincent PerezFrançois
- Dominique PinonRaymond
- Brigitte RoüanThe Documentalist
- Camille ChamouxThe Press Agent
- Josée DayanKarina
- Noémie LvovskyThe Exhibition Curator
- Leonello BrandoliniThe Italian Editor
- Édith Le MerdyThe Neighbor
Recommendations
- 80
Screen Daily
Polanski and the supremely genre-savvy Assayas know exactly what they’re doing, and whenever you think you’ve seen it all before, you realise they’re actually doing something else entirely – the film is an expertly navigated maze of misdirection. - 70
The Hollywood Reporter
There are multiple levels on which to enjoy Roman Polanski’s Based on a True Story (D’Apres une histoire vraie), none of them very deep or complicated. But together they raise the resonance of a masterfully made psychological thriller in the traditional mode. - 58
IndieWire
A stylish but ultimately stiff collection of old tropes about writers and their audience, fiction vs. reality, and the Other that becomes you. - 58
The Film Stage
Polanski sleepwalks his way through the film, manifesting precious little of the skill and invention that fueled the slow-burn suspense and sinister atmospheres of superficially similar works such as Rosemary’s Baby and Repulsion. - 40
The Guardian
This is a movie which begins with confidence and style, wearing its influences pretty insouciantly; the film sashays about the screen with a kind of sexy-chic smirk, like the unvarying facial expression of its co-lead Eva Green. But it wobbles at the brink of plot-holes which undermine the vital realistic plausibility of a film like this. - 40
Variety
Although the screenplay contains all the beats needed to generate tension, Assayas’ gift for conveying information between the lines is almost entirely lost on Polanski, who doesn’t give his actresses the opportunity to flesh out the subtext of their most awkward interactions. - 33
The Playlist
It’s one of the director’s worst films, if not the worst. - 20
The Telegraph
Nothing in this feeble psychological thriller rings true for a moment, though its unhinged machinations feel as pedestrian as soap opera in execution.
