Can a legendary actress ever truly separate her performance from her personal life?

Entertainment · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: In Hirokazu Kore-eda's 2019 drama The Truth, a famous French star publishes a memoir that glosses over her complicated past. When her daughter returns home to confront the omissions, the lines between scripted fiction and raw, painful reality begin to blur, forcing both women to question what is actually real.

Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, The Truth marks the filmmaker's first production set outside Japan and filmed in a language other than his native Japanese. The story centers on Fabienne Dangeville, a celebrated actress whose memoir triggers a tense reunion with her screenwriter daughter, Lumir. Upon reading the book, Lumir discovers that her mother has reimagined their strained relationship as a fairy tale, while completely omitting the existence of Sarah Mondavan, a brilliant actress and best friend whom Fabienne betrayed.

The narrative mirrors the film-within-a-film, Memories of My Mother, a science fiction project where a mother travels to space to arrest her aging while her daughter continues to grow older on Earth. On set, Fabienne struggles with the presence of Manon Lenoir, a young, talented actress who reminds her of the late Sarah. This professional rivalry forces Fabienne to confront her own insecurities and the cold reality of her past choices, including the circumstances surrounding Sarah's death, which Fabienne dismisses as an accidental drowning.

Throughout the film, the characters constantly negotiate the boundary between performance and sincerity. Fabienne, who prioritizes her craft above all else, often treats her personal relationships as rehearsals, even asking her daughter to script an apology for her manager. The film concludes with a poignant moment where a heartfelt line spoken by Fabienne's granddaughter is revealed to be a scripted prompt from Lumir. This leaves the audience to wonder if the sentiment, though manufactured, carries its own version of the truth.

Released in 2019, the film received generally favorable reviews, holding an 87% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics noted that while it may not reach the heights of Kore-eda's most acclaimed works, it maintains his signature sensitive touch. By weaving together the artifice of cinema and the messy, unscripted nature of family life, the film explores whether a life lived in the spotlight can ever be fully authentic.

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