Following the darker, more sombre moods of Clouds Of Sils Maria and Personal Shopper (aka ‘Kristen Stewart’s European Vacation’), Olivier Assayas continues his stellar run with a brisk, funny, tender look at complicated characters living double lives. Non-Fiction has the feel of Éric Rohmer — formally unadventurous but sharp on human nature — as Assayas explores how we deceive others and ourselves.
Without warning or context, Assayas drops us right into the midst of the complex lives of Parisian intellectuals; Alain (Canet) is a niche publisher caught in the transition between analogue and digital publishing models; Léonard Spiegel (Macaigne) is an author who writes novels mined from his own life without any thought for the real-life acquaintances he treats as characters; Alain’s wife Selena (Binoche) is an actress trapped playing a cop (or rather a ‘crisis management expert’, as she constantly corrects people) on a popular TV show, who is also having an affair with Léonard; Valérie (French comedian Nora Hamzawi) is Léonard’s smart, independent partner, who lives outside the literary artistic bubble inhabited by the other characters.
It never feels like eating your greens, Assayas imbuing the conversations with energy, naturalism and wit.
Plot-wise, Non-Fiction has elements of farce with characters sleeping with each other, keeping secrets and telling lies. Assayas uses his characters to explore debates around social media versus the printed word, the value of critics over algorithms and the dangers of living in a post-truth world, but it never feels like eating your greens, Assayas imbuing the conversations with energy, naturalism and wit — another conversation considers whether is it more acceptable to have a blowjob watching The Force Awakens or Haneke’s The White Ribbon. You decide.
He is well served by his cast. Canet lends Alain an air of class and confidence whereas Macaigne’s Léonard is the polar opposite, a beautifully realized scruffy chancer. But it’s the women who steal the film. Newcomer Hamzawi is terrific as a force of nature and Binoche is in the light and sparky mode we saw in Let The Sunshine In. All in all, it’s a thoughtful treat.