''Who You Think I Am'' (french: Celle que vous croyez) is a 2019 French-Belgian

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

Safy Nebbou Safy Nebbou (born 27 April 1968) is a French actor and director. Life and career Nebbou was born on 27 April 1968 in Bayonne, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France to a German mother and an Algerian father. He is the brother of actor Mehdi Nebbou. He ...

, starring

Juliette Binoche Juliette Binoche (; born 9 March 1964) is a French actress and dancer. She has appeared in more than sixty feature films and has been the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Silver Bear, ...

François Civil François Civil (; born 29 January 1990) is a French actor. He has appeared in both French and English-language feature films and is known for his roles in ''Frank'' (2014), ''As Above, So Below'' (2014), ''Call My Agent!'' (2015–17), ''Five'' ...

and

Nicole Garcia Nicole Garcia (born 22 April 1946) is a French actress, film director and screenwriter. Her film '' Charlie Says'' was entered into the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. Her film ''Going Away'' was screened in the Special Presentation section at the 20 ...

Plot

Claire, a middle-aged

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

French literature French literature () generally speaking, is literature written in the French language, particularly by citizens of France; it may also refer to literature written by people living in France who speak traditional languages of France other than Fr ...

, shares custody of her two sons with her ex-husband Gilles. She carries on an affair with the younger Ludovic, who obviously sees it as more casual than Claire. He soon distances himself from her, and when she calls, his roommate Alex answers the phone and pretends Ludo is out. Claire creates a fake persona, "Clara Antunès", on

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

, to connect with Alex, gradually developing an emotional and cybersexual affair with him. When Alex grows insistent upon meeting in person, Claire, as Clara, says she's getting married and moving to Brazil, calling off the affair rather than risk a meeting. Alex deletes his profile, leading Claire to approach Ludovic to find out about him. He tells her that Alex, broken-hearted over a "psychopath" on Facebook, has killed himself. These narrative details are revealed through 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 she brought up. Bormans receives a dossier from Claire containing a story in which she makes Alex' acquaintance alter 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, trying to ring "Clara", finds the hidden phone Claire had used for "Clara"; returning to confront Claire, he unnerves her to the point where she walks backwards into traffic and is presumably killed. Bormans concludes from the story that Claire is unwilling to allow herself any happiness, even in a work of fiction. It's revealed that Claire is a patient in a clinic for treatment of a mental disorder. Later, Bormans seeks out Ludovic, who reveals that, having heard "Clara's" voice in one of her calls to Alex, he had seen through her and later invented the story of Alex's death. Dr. Bormans brings this information to Claire, who confesses that it was for her niece Katia that Gilles had left her. Claire now appears ready to leave the institution. In the last scene, Claire dials Alex's number from "Clara's" phone.

Cast

as Claire Millaud *

as Alex Chelly *

as Dr. Catherine Bormans * Marie-Ange Casta as Katia *

Guillaume Gouix Guillaume Gouix (; born 30 November 1983) is a French actor, director and screenwriter. He starred in the limited television series ''Gone for Good'' (2021). Career Guillaume Gouix learned acting at the Conservatory of Marseille, then at the Re ...

as Ludovic Dalaux *

Charles Berling Charles Berling (born 30 April 1958) is a French actor, director and screenwriter. Life and career Charles Berling, son of a navy doctor, is also the nephew of the literary critic Raymond Picard. His mother, Nadia, "only daughter of (French) se ...

as Gilles *

Jules Houplain Jules Houplain (born 4 February 1998) is a French actor known for his film roles as Louis in ''Hidden Kisses'' (2016) and Luis in ''On voulait tout casser'', as Juliette Binoche Juliette Binoche (; born 9 March 1964) is a French actress and danc ...

as Max * Jules Gauzelin as Tristan * Francis Leplay as Serge * Pierre Giraud as Paul *

Claude Perron Claude Perron (born 23 January 1966) is a French actress. Career Perron appeared in the role of Eva (Nino's colleague) in the 2001 film ''Amélie ''Amélie'' (also known as ''Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain''; ; en, The Fabulous D ...

as Solange File:MJK 330427 Juliette Binoche (Berlinale 2019) (cropped).jpg,

File:François Civil Cannes 2019.jpg,

File:Nicole Garcia 2017.jpg,

Release

The movie premiered during the

69th Berlin International Film Festival The 69th annual Berlin International Film Festival took place from 7 to 17 February 2019. French actress Juliette Binoche served as the Jury President. Lone Scherfig's drama film ''The Kindness of Strangers (film), The Kindness of Strangers'' op ...

on 10 February 2019.

Reception

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film has an approval rating of based on critics, with an average rating of . 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." Pat Padua of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' called the film "thoroughly entertaining", while

Claudia Puig Claudia Puig (born September 10, 1956) is an entertainment journalist and an American film critic. She was on staff at USA Today as lead film critic and prior to that was a staff writer at the Los Angeles Times. She is currently a critic for NPR ...

from KPCC's ''FilmWeek'' called it "thought-provoking".

Manohla Dargis Manohla June Dargis () is an American film critic. She is one of the chief film critics for ''The New York Times''. She is a five-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. Career Before being a film critic for ''The New York Times'', ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' praised the role of Claire Millaud by

, writing that " he.. fluidly navigates all the narrative switchbacks and emotional storms, enough that you may not mind the pileup of strained developments and coincidences". Writing for the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'', Roxana Hadadi suggested that the film "Vacillates between high-minded and tawdry", "result ngin an engaging mashup of psychological drama and social media thriller". Guy Lodge of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' wrote that "Safy Nebbou tucks bittersweet human observations between unabashedly outlandish twists". Reviewing the film at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival, Neil Young of ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'' called the film a "Catfish a la Francaise: Conventional-looking dish yields surprisingly sharp flavors". In the United Kingdom, the film was praised by ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'', whose Kevin Maher said "I've seen it twice and it's even better the second time". ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'', called ''Who You Think I Am'' "a kind of illicit thrill".

Peter Bradshaw Peter Bradshaw (born 19 June 1962) is a British writer and film critic. He has been chief film critic at ''The Guardian'' since 1999, and is a contributing editor at ''Esquire''. Early life and education Bradshaw was educated at Haberdashers ...

of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', "Binoche's performance and the movie are elegant, ingenious and sexy". The criticism of the film internationally was also positive. Sandra Hall of ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...

'' called the film "flawed", but "has an elegant morality tale about the dangers and temptations of the virtual life".

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 7552686 2019 drama films French drama films Belgian drama films Films about social media Works about Facebook Films based on French novels 2010s French films 2010s French-language films French-language Belgian films