Who You Think I Am
Film poster
FrenchCelle que vous croyez
Directed bySafy Nebbou
Written bySafy Nebbou
Julie Peyr
Based onCelle que vous croyez
by Camille Laurens
Produced byMichel Saint-Jean
StarringJuliette Binoche
François Civil
Nicole Garcia
CinematographyGilles Porte
Edited byStéphane Pereira
Music byIbrahim Maalouf
Production
company
Diaphana Films
Distributed byDiaphana Films
Palace Films & Cinemas (Australia & New Zealand)
Release date
  • 27 February 2019 (2019-02-27)
Running time
101 minutes
CountriesFrance
Belgium
LanguageFrench
Budget$6.2 million[1]
Box office$3.3 million[2]

Who You Think I Am (French: Celle que vous croyez) is a 2019 French-Belgian drama film directed by Safy Nebbou, starring Juliette Binoche, François Civil and Nicole Garcia.[3]

Plot

Claire, a middle-aged professor of French literature, shares custody of her two sons with her ex-husband Gilles. She carries on an affair with the younger Ludovic, who obviously sees it as more casual than Claire. He soon distances himself from her, and when she calls, his roommate Alex answers the phone and pretends Ludo is out.

Claire creates a fake persona, "Clara Antunès", on Facebook, to connect with Alex, gradually developing an emotional and cybersexual affair with him. When Alex grows insistent upon meeting in person, Claire, as Clara, says she's getting married and moving to Brazil, calling off the affair rather than risk a meeting. Alex deletes his profile, leading Claire to approach Ludovic to find out about him. He tells her that Alex, broken-hearted over a "psychopath" on Facebook, has killed himself.

These narrative details are revealed through a series of psychotherapy sessions between Claire and Dr Bormans. Bormans asks Claire to be honest about a detail in her story that does not add up, leading Claire to disclose that the photos and videos of "Clara" used during her communications with Alex actually belong to her estranged niece, Katia, whom she brought up.

Bormans receives a dossier from Claire containing a story in which she makes Alex' acquaintance alter the end of the "Clara" persona. In the story, Alex and Claire become live-in lovers, but a nagging doubt over whether "Clara" retains a place in his heart leads Claire to revive the persona and ask Alex for a meeting. Alex, trying to ring "Clara", finds the hidden phone Claire had used for "Clara"; returning to confront Claire, he unnerves her to the point where she walks backwards into traffic and is presumably killed. Bormans concludes from the story that Claire is unwilling to allow herself any happiness, even in a work of fiction. It's revealed that Claire is a patient in a clinic for treatment of a mental disorder.

Later, Bormans seeks out Ludovic, who reveals that, having heard "Clara's" voice in one of her calls to Alex, he had seen through her and later invented the story of Alex's death. Dr. Bormans brings this information to Claire, who confesses that it was for her niece Katia that Gilles had left her. Claire now appears ready to leave the institution.

In the last scene, Claire dials Alex's number from "Clara's" phone.

Cast

Release

The movie premiered during the 69th Berlin International Film Festival on 10 February 2019.[4]

Reception

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 86% based on 65 critics, with an average rating of 7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Who You Think I Am bites off more plot than some viewers will be able to chew, but its narrative entanglements are more than offset by Juliette Binoche's central performance."[5]

Pat Padua of The Washington Post called the film "thoroughly entertaining",[6] while Claudia Puig from KPCC's FilmWeek called it "thought-provoking".[7]

Manohla Dargis of The New York Times praised the role of Claire Millaud by Juliette Binoche, writing that "[She]... fluidly navigates all the narrative switchbacks and emotional storms, enough that you may not mind the pileup of strained developments and coincidences".[8]

Writing for the Los Angeles Times, Roxana Hadadi suggested that the film "Vacillates between high-minded and tawdry", "result[ing] in an engaging mashup of psychological drama and social media thriller".[9]

Guy Lodge of Variety wrote that "Safy Nebbou tucks bittersweet human observations between unabashedly outlandish twists".[10]

Reviewing the film at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival, Neil Young of The Hollywood Reporter called the film a "Catfish a la Francaise: Conventional-looking dish yields surprisingly sharp flavors".[11]

In the United Kingdom, the film was praised by The Times, whose Kevin Maher said "I've seen it twice and it's even better the second time".[12] The Daily Telegraph, called Who You Think I Am "a kind of illicit thrill".[13] Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian, "Binoche's performance and the movie are elegant, ingenious and sexy".[14]

The criticism of the film internationally was also positive. Sandra Hall of The Sydney Morning Herald called the film "flawed", but "has an elegant morality tale about the dangers and temptations of the virtual life".[15]

References

  1. ↑ "Celle que vous croyez". Archived from the original on 5 May 2019. Retrieved 11 September 2021.
  2. ↑ "Who You Think I Am". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Archived from the original on 24 June 2021. Retrieved 1 October 2021.
  3. ↑ "Celle que vous croyez" (in French). Archived from the original on 18 August 2021. Retrieved 11 September 2021.
  4. ↑ "Berlinale: Binoche dans la spirale du mensonge dans "Celle que vous croyez"". La Dépêche du Midi. 11 February 2019. Archived from the original on 10 May 2021. Retrieved 11 September 2021.
  5. ↑ "Who You Think I Am (2019)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Archived from the original on 2021-09-05. Retrieved 30 October 2021.
  6. ↑ "Juliette Binoche is captivating in this psychological thriller". The Washington Post. 8 September 2021. Archived from the original on 17 September 2021. Retrieved 11 September 2021.
  7. ↑ "FilmWeek: 'Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings', 'Who You Think I Am' And More". KPCC. Archived from the original on 2021-09-10. Retrieved 11 September 2021.
  8. ↑ Dargis, Manohla (2 September 2021). "'Who You Think I Am' Review: A Woman of Feeling, in Bed and Out". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 10 September 2021. Retrieved 11 September 2021.
  9. ↑ Hadadi, Roxana (2 September 2021). "Review: Juliette Binoche makes you believe in catfishing drama 'Who You Think I Am'". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 10 September 2021. Retrieved 11 September 2021.
  10. ↑ Lodge, Guy (11 February 2019). "Film Review: 'Who You Think I Am'". Variety. Archived from the original on 10 September 2021. Retrieved 10 September 2021.
  11. ↑ "'Who You Think I Am' ('Celle que vous croyez'): Film Review - Berlin 2019". The Hollywood Reporter. 10 February 2019. Archived from the original on 11 September 2021. Retrieved 11 September 2021.
  12. ↑ Maher, Kevin (10 April 2020). "Who You Think I Am review — Hitchcock meets Facebook". The Times. Archived from the original on 12 August 2020. Retrieved 11 September 2021.
  13. ↑ Robey, Tim (9 April 2020). "Who You Think I Am, review: Juliette Binoche is brilliantly unsettling in this catfishing thriller". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 22 August 2021. Retrieved 11 September 2021.
  14. ↑ Bradshaw, Peter (9 April 2020). "Who You Think I Am review – Juliette Binoche turns up the heat in phone sex tale". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 10 September 2021. Retrieved 11 September 2021.
  15. ↑ Hall, Sandra (27 July 2019). "Elegant moral tale is like Dangerous Liaisons for the digital age". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 11 September 2021. Retrieved 11 September 2021.
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