Dalloway

Bluesky

The future is alarmingly close in Yann Gozlan’s satirical thriller which finds an AI assistant with echoes of Alexa taking over the life of Cecile de France’s troubled writer, Clarissa.

The virtual assistant helps her break through a writer’s block to create but Dalloway’s presence becomes increasingly intrusive to the extent that Clarissa decides to investigate and finds other electronic presences and surveillance also impinging.

Watching the film when your Apple Watch warns that it’s time to stand gives an added frisson to the proceedings when Clarissa signs up for a residency to focus on a book about Virginia Woolf’s final moments.

The creepy big brother aspect of the film pervades everything. She barely leaves her apartment and she is tracked by cameras everywhere she goes within its streamlined interiors.

The French singer Mylène Farmer provides the voice for the digital assistant, at first friendly and then menacing. There are echoes here for anyone who has struggled with domestic technology - from ordering groceries online to playing music throughout the house.

The production design is classy and uber-contemporary but not that far removed from the living environments to which many people aspire. Let his be a warning lesson to those who rush to embrace such “advances.”

There’s not much room for the supporting cast to make impression, among them Lars Mikkelsen, Anna Mouglalis and Freya Mavor.

This is very much De France’s show and she makes the most of it in a performance that swerves from relatively normal behaviour to outright paranoia as she fights the demons, imaginary or otherwise. It’s a tour de force from an actress whose talents frequently have been under-estimated by directors.

Yann Gozlan who made the gripping Black Box (a mystery about an airplane crash) knows how to play to her strengths and seems comfortably at home in the glossy world of technology taking over from humans.

If you needed a health-warning about artificial intelligence look no further than The Residence / Dalloway to halt such reliance in its tracks.

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