 German magazine Focus found Anamaria Vartolomei was convincing as a young girl whose life eventually turns into a nightmare because of her mother's artistic ambitions in 1970s Paris.Critics also commented that Anamaria Vartolomei and Isabelle Huppert have portrayed the lack of affection so convincingly that they have even been accused of interacting insufficiently as actors.Regarding this, Huppert told German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in an interview that shooting of the film had been one of her more peculiar professional experiences because on the set she had had the feeling she was indeed the director's mother.