Non-Fiction

Sometimes it is not difficult to read between the lines: Léonard writes novels in which he deals with his past loves. However, he conceals the real-life references more poorly than well. So it is hardly surprising that one of the female characters looks suspiciously like the wife of his publisher Alain. He doesn't like Léonard's new work anyway, but is already fully occupied with the digitization of his publishing house - or rather with the attractive young employee who is responsible for it. Léonard is also coolly advised by his wife to write a new book. Alain's wife Selena, who is the star of a TV series but would much rather be in the theater, thinks Léonard's book is a great novel. Probably because she sees herself reflected in it. Honesty is at least a flexible concept in this already quite flexible web of relationships that Olivier Assayas weaves between his characters. With a great deal of wit, charm and debating pleasure, all those involved throw themselves into an amorous and verbal exchange of blows. Assayas not only takes a routinely ambiguous look at the Parisian literary scene, which is challenged in digital times, but also alludes to the upheavals in the cinema landscape. All the participants discuss fiction and truth as well as cultural and digital change in captivating dialogs - what fun! "I wanted to make a movie that is part of the current conversation in society, and where the viewer is also part of this exchange in a certain sense." [...] This movie is about how we adapt to change, in general. The world has always changed, but in our present day, the engine of change is the digital revolution. And whether we adapt to it or rebel against it, we have to adapt to it." (Olivier Assayas, in "Das Beziehungsleben der Büchermenschen", on: orf.at)