Reviewed by Ron Holloway
(from Cannes Film Festival 2008; entry in official competition)
Critically acclaimed in the French press and media - along with Luc Besson, Leos Carax, Claire Denis and Olivier Assayas - as one of the key directors in what is often tagged as the "new" nouvelle vague, Arnaud Desplechin rose to the top of that list when his Un conte de Noel (A Christmas Tale) (France) was screened at Cannes - the fourth time he has competed for Palme d'Or laurels. Slotted in the festival calendar on a prime Friday evening, the scheduled screening enabled thousands on French television to catch a glimpse of favorite stars as they posed on the red carpet before the Grand Staircase of the Palais des Festivals. Only the steady fall of rain marred the event. Running at two-and-a-half-hours, A Christmas Tale is yet another Desplechin talk-show, a specialty enjoyed by Gallic audiences. Packed with veteran stage-and-screen thespians - headed by Catherine Deneuve, the doyenne of French cinema - it is a sure bet to entertain the home audience when it opens in France on May 21. As for the art-house audience abroad, they need only wait until the Christmas season to catch up. A longer release in the States is questionable at best. Since the film was once listed in its preproducton data as A Christmas Tale: Roubaix!!, the director serves notice that he is returning to his roots. Born in 1960 in Roubaix, Arnaud Desplechin graduated from IDHEC in 1984, worked as a cameraman for Eric Rochant and Nico Papatakis, then debuted in the International Week of the Critics at the 1991 Cannes festival with the short feature La vie des morts. A treatise on suicide, it was awarded the Jean Vigo Prize for Best Short Film. A year later, Desplechin was invited to compete at the 1992 Cannes festival with La Sentinelle. The story of a German medical student on his way to study in Paris who is surprised on the train to discover a human head in his baggage. The Sentinel was awarded the Prix Georges Sadoul for Best Debut Feature. Two more invitations to compete at Cannes followed: Comment je me suis disputé... (ma vie sexuelle) (My Sex Life ... or How I Got Into an Argument) (1996), his most commercially successful film, and Esther Kahn (2000), about a Jewish girl in pursuit of a theatrical career in 19th-century London. Shot in English, Esther Kahn also drew critical attention because the costume drama benefitted from an added dramatic effect: a tone-deaf protagonist. The film ran for a year in Parisian cinemas. Desplechin's penchant for theatrical themes was explored even further in En jouant 'Dans la compagnie des hommes' (Playing "In the Company of Men"), invited to open the Un Certain Regard section at the 2003 Cannes festival. A screen adaptation of Edward Bond's blistering play about the iniquity of boardroom power games, In the Company of Men was published in 1989 and first staged at Avignon in 1992. In Desplechin's view, the play was a timely scathing attack on sweeping corruption at stock exchanges and business centers the world over. The key factor in the critical success of Playing "In the Company of Men" was Desplechin's approach to filming an ensemble of actors as they, in turn, set about to stage Edward Bond's play. Much the same approach to ensemble acting was used in A Christmas Tale, with the veteran thesps at their loquacious best. The setting of this fast-paced family drama is an estate in Roubaix. Here, a painful reunion takes place at Christmas, during which sparks begin to fly from the very outset. The root of the animosity was a family tragedy that happened years before. | 
