I think I had the mistaken impression that Sibyl (2019) was an erotic thriller (the first act initially made me think of Francois Ozon’s Double Lover), which it isn’t. But there’s lots of intrigue and tension throughout, a psychological character study that is about a few things at once: sexual desire, substance addiction, creative process, and more. In the opening scenes, we learn that Sibyl (Virginie Efria) is a psychotherapist who wants to return to their first love, writing novels. As they discontinue seeing patients to focus upon a new ceative project, a new patient chaotically enters Sibyl’s life, a young actor Margot (Adele Exarchopoulos) who is currently shooting a movie and has fallen pregnant to the lead star, Igor (Gaspard Ulliel). This is also a clandestine affair since Igor is publicly involved with the film’s director, Mika (Sandra Huller). Margot’s struggles become creative fodder for Sibyl who starts using their sessions to inform the new novel. This is a complicated enough scenario but is also only one facet of the movie. The film’s perspective is from Sibyl’s point of view and the editing shuffles from scene to scene, finding a point in a scene and moving onto another one at a clipped pace, building its portrait of her through increasing incremental detail, her own married life with children, her relationship with her sister, and as well as a past relationship with Gabriel (Niels Schneider). The growing eroticism of the movie is built upon memories of longing and regret, which affect Sibyl’s own actions in the present. All of this eventually turns into a dry and dizzy farce about movie making within a volcanic island setting that recalls Contempt and L’Aventura with Sibyl as confidant, go between, imposter. Great performances across the cast, particularly Virginie Efira in the lead, somewhere between a Hitchockian ice blonde and a Gena Rowlands type emotional free fall. Toni Erdmann’s Huller is particularly hilarious and memorable as the fed up director. I was really into the film’s melodramatic complications and jumbling of dramatic and comic tones, directed and written by Justine Triet. Available to stream on SBS On Demand in Australia. Recommended.
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