Planetarium

Planetarium (2016) is a French drama directed by Rebecca Zlotowski that you can watch online on iFILM, starring Natalie Portman and Lily-Rose Depp. Set in Paris during the 1930s — a decade of glamour shadowed by what everyone could feel coming — it follows two American sisters who stage séances for paying audiences.

Laura Barlow (Portman) is the older one: poised, controlled, the public face of the act. Kate (Depp) is younger, and her apparent gifts unsettle even the people who hired her. Film producer André Corban spots them performing and decides their power over audiences is exactly what his struggling career needs. He wants to film the spirits, sell it as spectacle, and reclaim his position. He is fascinated by Laura and fixated on Kate, and he never seriously asks whether any of it is real. Louis Garrel co-stars as a figure drawn into the same orbit.

Zlotowski is not interested in whether the supernatural is genuine — she is interested in what men do to women they find useful and beautiful. The film competed at the Venice Film Festival in 2016. Stream Planetarium online on iFILM.