Non-Fiction

Alain runs a well-known Parisian publishing house and is finding it hard to keep pace with the digital changes reshaping his industry. When his friend Léonard, one of the authors he has published for years, delivers a new manuscript, Alain has doubts about it. The book is another autobiographical novel, this time drawing on Léonard's affair with a minor celebrity, and Alain struggles to tell him plainly that he considers it weak. Selena, Alain's wife and a star of a popular television series, disagrees: she thinks the manuscript is a success. Valérie, who lives with Léonard while working for a politician, takes Alain's side against the book. The relationships between the two couples are more tangled than they first appear, and Alain's own efforts to modernise his company involve a young consultant, Laure, who advises him on e-books and social media.

Olivier Assayas wrote and directed this French comedy drama, the twelfth of the fifteen features he has made, following Personal Shopper and preceding Wasp Network. Charles Gillibert produced, and the cast is led by Guillaume Canet, Juliette Binoche and Vincent Macaigne, with Christa Théret, Nora Hamzawi and Pascal Greggory among the twenty-one credited performers. The film examines a cultural moment and sets its discussions of books, truth and digital change against the private lives of the people talking. On TMDB it holds a rating of 5.4 out of 10 from 256 votes, indicating a limited audience response.