“Non-Fiction” (Double Lives) -- Movie Review

This week at The 56th New York Film Festival, I attended a screening of the new French comedy-drama “Non-Fiction” (AKA “Double Lives”), starring Juliette Binoche and written & directed by Olivier Assayas. 

Synopsis

As technology changes the landscape of the print media, can the old dinosaurs of publishing keep up or will they be lost amid the brave new world?

Story

With his publishing business teetering on the brink, Alain (Guillaume Canet) is even more discriminating than usual when it comes to which books he’ll choose to publish – this even includes the latest work from Léonard (Vincent Macaigne), his good friend.  Over the years, Alain has published a number of Léonard’s books – but now, with print media appearing on the verge of collapse – Alain can no long afford that luxury. Given the fact that books only seem to be read by old people and young people are only reading blogs and Twitter, Alain has to learn to be more selective than he was in the past. 

Concerned about his future, Alain begins cheating on his wife Selena (Juliette Binoche) with a young woman who is the marketing director at his publishing company; because of her youth, she’s more in touch with how younger audiences use technology, what type they use and their choices in reading material.  Meanwhile, Selena, an actress on a popular television show, has her own secrets: for the past six years, she has been having an affair with Léonard – who is also married to Valérie (Nora Hamzawi), a political activist currently hard at work on a socialist politician’s campaign … in fact, she has worked so hard on it that her aloof nature is what has driven Léonard to have an affair. 

Suddenly, things look like they’re coming to a boil for everyone:  the owner of Alain’s publishing company may sell the business, which could put Alain out of a job.  A restless Selena is considering leaving her television show – and at the same time, breaks up with Léonard.  While having to deal with this, Léonard finds that he is under attack from all sides because his last book, a roman à clef that some call “auto-fiction”, is transparent in terms of who the real-life people are that wound up as characters in his book. Valérie, on the other hand, is even more consumed with her political client’s future because he may be arrested.  Amidst all of this chaos, can the two couples keep their marriage intact?

Review

“Non-Fiction” is a bit of a trifle – an amusing and occasionally entertaining trifle, but a trifle nonetheless.  It is certainly lighter fare than some of the movies Olivier Assayas has done over the past few years (“Clouds of Sils Maria” and “Personal Shopper”, for example).  The problem is it sometimes feels as though it’s a bunch of characters in search of a story. This is evident through the alternative titles; the original French title translates into “Double Lives”, but it is also being billed as “Non-Fiction”.  That may be where the confusion is introduced – both for the audience and for the director himself.

Under the title “Double Lives”, it suggests that the emphasis of the story will be about the characters’ various extramarital affairs.  However, using the title “Non-Fiction” implies it may be about the publishing world. In the end, it is in fact about both and the net result is that because of this lack of focus, the movie really isn’t about anything much at all – there is precious little in the sense of a resolution by the conclusion of the film.  That sense may be due to the fact that it wasn’t really focusing on any given topic in the first place. It seemed to be rather scattered and undisciplined in its topic.

What makes a French movie a French movie?  Well, if you answered that it’s the characters speaking French, then please turn in your cinephile ID badge immediately.  What makes a French movie a French movie is the presence of extramarital affairs and its various nods toward intellectualism.  The fact that “Non-Fiction” is so oppressively talky in its attempts at intellectualizing art, technology and politics is something of a hindrance that only serves to underscore how much the film is desperately looking for a cohesive story.  In the end, it may also be that this film is not geared toward today’s youth; it’s more about old fogeys yearning for yesteryear and decrying the changes swept in by new technology.