Chatty ‘Non-Fiction’ explores whether anything is truly made-up
Olivier Assayas’ “Non-Fiction,” starring Juliette Binoche, is about writers and publishers and bourgeois intellectuals and affairs, extramarital and otherwise. But most of all it’s about talking. It’s practically a nonstop jabberathon. What rescues the film from tedium is that much of the talk is enticing.
It should come as no surprise that “Non-Fiction” is built around banter, especially of the high-toned variety. This is, after all, a film – a very French. Éric Rohmer, with movies like “My Night at Maud’s” and “Claire’s Knee,” created the template for this sort of thing. By contrast, Assayas’ previous movies, including “Irma Vep” and “Clouds of Sils Maria,” have generally been less talky and more stylistically flamboyant. Here he is happy to rein in his camera and tap his inner Rohmer.
