In a stylish mystery, Jodie Foster releases the dybbuk of French Jewish identity

Dr. Lilian Steiner isn't really listening.

Yes, she hears the thunderous strains of the Talking Heads' "Psycho Killer" playing from an upstairs neighbor's apartment above her psychiatry practice in a tony arrondissement of Paris. She is committed to recording the sessions on mini-discs for future reference, even if she has to bug her digital native son to buy replacements on Amazon. But when a patient dies from an apparent suicide, without any of the usual warning signs, she knows she's missing something.

French director Rebecca Zlotowski's A Private Life, a semi-dark comic mystery takes Lilia...