Cannes ‘08: Arnaud Desplechin’s ‘A Christmas Tale’ is a gift from France

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

It’s been more than 20 years since a hometown French film won the Palme d’Or at the Festival de Cannes, but there is definitely a strong contender in Arnaud Desplechin’s marvelous ‘A Christmas Tale,’ which screened here Friday morning.

Considered one of the top directors of his generation in France (‘My Sex Life ...Or How I Got Into An Argument,’ ‘Kings and Queen’) but little known in the U.S., Desplechin has created a multigenerational drama around a gorgeously fractious family that comes together for a memorable Christmas week reunion, a film that critics here are comparing to a Gallic ‘Fanny and Alexander.’

‘Christmas’ stars Catherine Deneuve as the family matriarch; Mathieu Almaric, a Desplechin regular and the star of ‘The Diving Bell and the Butterfly’ in a spectacular role as her son the rotten apple; and Deneuve’s daughter Chiara Mastronianni as a daughter-in-law.

But the real star here is director/co-writer Desplechin. His zest for self-aware language and surprising structure, his passion for finding new ways to tell old stories are exhilarating. Unexpected but still made
squarely in the French humanist tradition, this is a film you don’t want to see end, not because the people are so happy but because they are so human and so alive.

-- Kenneth Turan

Photo courtesy Cannes Film Festival