Sibyl

Having watched and been enthralled by Triet's superb Anatomy of a Fall featuring an excellent Sandra Hüller, I sought out their previous shared feature Sibyl with some excitement; only to be sorely disappointed. Here the oblique and allusive style fails to entrance or in fact even entertain. The image for me is of that carefully constructed style aimed perhaps rather over thoughtfully like a hammer at an intricately fashioned nail...... and being brought down well wide of the mark. Sadly much less than the sum of its parts. Complexity for it's own and not the story's sake. Cloyingly erotic rather than sexy I'm afraid, and emotionally flat.

This film kept me in its grip, and I enjoyed every twist and turn as the plotlines unfolded. The acting was superb and the main characters were complex, compelling and elusive. I'm quite surprised to see such low ratings, but to each their own! To me, the film's seemingly disparate elements/themes (e.g. Trauma, depression, addiction, grief/loss, desire, deception, vanity, power, exploitation) came together to paint a beautifully absurd portrait of the human condition. In particular, the film seems to emphasize the ways that we naively cling to earthly vices/pleasures and deceptive/delusional narratives in our fights against feelings of disillusionment, meaninglessness and hopelessness.

First, the acting is less than perfect but as the film advance, it is more and more right on. The story is complex and simple and psychological and makes sense hilariously. We see gifted people and the replies keep in originality. Nothing predictable and all characters are bright. A delight of a film that has many loose strings hanging after it's over.

This film is a mess of unsavory characters and bad, ridiculously unlikely decision. Some of the acting is good, the storyline is silly, the sex gratuitous and graphic. There is not one interesting character. Despite the attempt to give some background to why sybil is so messed up (an absent mother from whom she distanced herself and a sister who gives sybil's children lectures on how to be manipulative) it's a fail all around.

... Which is in a way a follow-up to the film called in bed with Victoria or in French simply "Victoria". Again a career woman in this case a psychotherapist in the case of Victoria a lawyer Virginie Efira confused Unsure of herself going through a breakdown and connected to writing this time she wants to write. This is so depressing I bailed out after half an hour you could see where it was going and it was nowhere good. The main actress is so mesmeric so beautiful so captivating; but this time even her beauty couldn't keep me there. This is made by the exact same director who made Victoria and it seems to me that this is the same story but stretched deeper in the direction of darkness; a tale of an exploding careerwoman. I shouldn't really be reviewing this since I didn't see the whole thing but I got a sense of it a sense of doom and despair and hopelessness which did not make me wanna carry on seeing this...saw "20 ans d'écart/It Boy" One night Victoria the next and this is the third night. So basically I went from a really funny comedy to tragicomedy into this the depth of the bowels of the volcano following the works of this actress It is obviously well put together in terms of filmmaking the director Justine Triet is very competent but Jesus do we need more dire stories about lost aimless people??? .... as others wrote in the reviews waste of opportunity.

Sibyl wants to stop her psychiatry practice in order to write the next great French novel. But not before she agrees to treat a pregnant girl who is in love with a famous actor. Fast forward a few weeks, and Sybil is suddenly in the middle of a Love triangle (or is it trapezium?), that opens old wounds and make her question her perception of reality. Who needs therapy now? Independent director Justine Triet has been praised by the critics for her previous works that underline social and political problems. Here we deal with a crisis of a domestic nature and one wonders if the film is based on the director's personal experience. SYBIL cannot be called feminist even though it features plenty of strong women making tough choices. The problem is that those female characters are all despicable and hardly inspire any sympathy from the viewer. The story is patchworky and, while intriguing, it takes a long time to get to the meat of things. Erotic scenes while well made seem irrelevant and the plot itself is hard to define - it's like it was re-written in the last minute. And we are left wondering what it was all about. Filled with great performances from all Involved, and with its decent cinematography, the movie mostly suffers from the story's inconsistencies and a lack of focus. Overstuffed with ideas which are plenty but never quite make it whole the film struggles to find its identity and borderlines on any piece of entertainment's worst enemy - which is boredom!

Actors can be ... difficult. But Psychotherapists can be insane too ... wait what am I trying to say here again? I guess I am trying to make a point ... like the movie is. Kidding aside, people in general can be tough to read and even tougher to "cure" - especially when the one doing the curing has issues of her own. A strange little movie that can, but that also is strange to say the least. You have to suspend your disbelief quite a lot and go with the flow. Having a love for making movies and understanding what can go on behind the scenes (it almost feels like someone is doing their own curing by doing the movie - the writer, the director, producers ... all of the above and more?) ... Interesting aspects and quite a lot of sexual tension! And one of the best drunk acting performances put on film! A strange drama/thriller, that will appeal to some and will annoy others - but it is very well done!

Too many scenes' discrepancies...., story/script way-out irrelevant ... ; what a waste of ( potential ) talents!?....Editing is , at best, ... irrelevant !?

The main character named Sibyl infests and destroys every thing that she touches. She is a shrink who sleeps with her patients, has a kid with one that she keeps out of the it's life for verdictive reasons. She manipulates an actress into having an abortion which ruins the relationship of the actress and the actor who got her pregnant because he wanted the child. Sibyl then sleeps with the actor after ruining his relationship. This woman is the definition of cancer. Whoever wrote this movie either knows someone like this or is twisted inside.

I was somewhat skeptical before entering the theater, thinking it would turn out to be another boring film about white people surrendering themselves to hordes of therapists, french woman suffering from romantic distress and so on. However, the writer/director cleverly managed to create a layered portrayal of the protagonist shrink and the world she lives in - blending in her present life, her past, the fiction novel she's writing and the movie her patient stars in. The script is mature, quirky and unpredictable enough to handle these four layers without becoming pointless and confusing. The performances are stellar, especially of Sandra Huller as the temperamental film director. There is no dearth of past french films handling similar material. Yet somehow this film appears fresh and profusely entertaining.