Who You Think I Am

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Who You Think I Am
Who Do You Think I Am poster.jpg
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
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 drama film directed by Safy Nebbou.[3]

Plot[]

Claire, a middle-aged professor of French literature, shares custody of her two sons with her ex-husband Gilles. She carries on a casual affair with the emotionally distant Ludovic, who on one occasion lets his roommate Alex pick up his phone when Claire calls. When Ludo becomes distant, Claire contrives to befriend him online. She creates a fake persona, "Clara Antunès", on Facebook and connects with Alex, gradually developing an emotional affair with him. When Alex grows insistent upon meeting in person, Claire decides to call off the affair rather than risk him being disappointed with her middle-aged self. Alex deletes his profile, leading Claire to meet with Ludovic to find out about him. He tells her that Alex, broken-hearted over a girl on Facebook, has taken his own life.

These narrative details are interspersed with 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 Gilles had left Claire for. Bormans receives a dossier from Claire containing a story in which she makes Alex' acquaintance after 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, torn, chances upon the alternate phone she used for "Clara"; confronting Claire at a tea shop, he unnerves her to the point where she distractedly walks into traffic. Bormans concludes from the story that Claire is unwilling to allow any happiness to herself, even in a work of fiction. Claire proceeds to an in-patient institution for treatment of a mental disorder.

Later, Bormans decides to ask Ludovic for information about Alex, and learns from him that Alex' death was a ruse of his making. Having heard "Clara's" voice in one of her calls to Alex, Ludovic had realized what Claire was doing and decided to step in to protect his friend. Dr. Bormans brings this information to Claire, who is now ready to leave the institution. In a twist ending, she dials Alex' 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, who's 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". Retrieved 11 September 2021.
  2. ^ "Who You Think I Am". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved 1 October 2021.
  3. ^ "Celle que vous croyez". Retrieved 11 September 2021.
  4. ^ "Berlinale: Binoche dans la spirale du mensonge dans "Celle que vous croyez"". La Dépêche du Midi. 11 February 2019. Retrieved 11 September 2021.
  5. ^ "Who You Think I Am (2019)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved 30 October 2021.
  6. ^ "Juliette Binoche is captivating in this psychological thriller". The Washington Post. 8 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. 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. 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. Retrieved 11 September 2021.
  10. ^ Lodge, Guy (11 February 2019). "Film Review: 'Who You Think I Am'". Variety.
  11. ^ "'Who You Think I Am' ('Celle que vous croyez'): Film Review - Berlin 2019". The Hollywood Reporter. 10 February 2019. Retrieved 11 September 2021.
  12. ^ Maher, Kevin (10 April 2020). "Who You Think I Am review — Hitchcock meets Facebook". The Times. 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. 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. 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. Retrieved 11 September 2021.

External links[]

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