Review | Venice 2019: The Truth film review – Catherine Deneuve, Juliette Binoche in Hirokazu Koreeda’s Paris-set drama
- The Japanese director’s first film since winning last year’s Palme d’Or in Cannes is an intimate family drama, much like his previous work
- His observations of human behaviour remain razor-sharp as Deneuve and Binoche trade barbs
3.5/5 stars
When a director wins the Palme d’Or, you can expect the next project to potentially be a step up in scale and ambition. Japan’s Hirokazu Koreeda, who won the Cannes Film Festival’s top prize in 2018 for Shoplifters , returns with what, on the surface, is exactly that.
With an international cast led by Catherine Deneuve and Juliette Binoche, two titans of French cinema who have never been on screen before together, The Truth is a Paris-set drama that takes Koreeda far from his native Japan.
Arriving as the opening movie of this year’s Venice Film Festival, what transpires is an intimate family drama that feels much in line with Koreeda’s other works, such as Nobody Knows and Like Father, Like Son.
Deneuve plays Fabienne, an iconic actress in her native France who is just about to publish her memoirs. But then her daughter Lumir (Binoche) arrives from New York, with her American actor-husband Hank (Ethan Hawke) and their daughter in tow, and the fireworks really begin.
