{"id":1741,"date":"2008-05-17T03:48:53","date_gmt":"2008-05-17T02:48:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/?p=1741"},"modified":"2008-05-17T03:50:57","modified_gmt":"2008-05-17T02:50:57","slug":"cannes-2008-reactions-un-conte-de-noel-a-christmas-tale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/2008\/05\/17\/cannes-2008-reactions-un-conte-de-noel-a-christmas-tale\/","title":{"rendered":"Cannes 2008 Reactions: Un Conte de Noel (A Christmas Tale)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Un conte de Noel<\/strong> (A Christmas Tale)<\/a> screened last night and is the latest film from director Arnaud Desplechin<\/a>, who made Kings and Queen<\/a> in 2004.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It is a drama about a dysfunctional family who gather together for the first time in years after a tragedy and stars Catherine Deneuve<\/a> and Mathieu Amalric<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here is a summary of critical reaction to the film:<\/p>\n

Kim Voynar of Cinematical <\/strong>is impressed<\/a>:<\/p>\n

This could have been an emotionally wrenching film, but Desplechin keeps the tone light, infusing the drama with humor in the most unexpected places…<\/p>\n

This kind of familial tale, interwoven with classic literary elements and philosophical questions, is something that Desplechin excels at, and A Christmas Tale<\/em> is a perfect example of why both international and independent cinema — and a festival like Cannes, which showcases such films — are still important today.<\/p>\n

I hope the film will secure distribution in the United States as well, so that American audiences might also get to appreciate its humor, beauty and depth.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Lisa Nesselson of Screen Daily<\/strong> is impressed by the cast as well as the craft of the film<\/a>:<\/p>\n

A beautifully-cast, tragic-comic ensemble piece in which an extended family gathers for the title holiday, Arnaud Desplechin’s A Christmas Tale is an intricate, accomplished patchwork of sometimes nutty but always believable human behaviour.<\/p>\n

Lengthy but never dull, this lively tale is sufficiently engrossing to interest even those who don’t usually go for Desplechin’s frank and discomfiting approach to interpersonal and intergenerational relationships.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Lou Lumenick of the New York Post<\/strong> is impressed by the performances<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Excellent performances, including Mathieu Almaric as the ne’er-do-well eldest son and Anne Cosigny as the uptight sister who banished him, will make “A Christmas Tale” a holiday treat when it gets released in the U.S. later this year.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Kenneth Turan of the LA Times<\/strong> is a huge fan of the film<\/a> and even feels that this could be the first French entry in over 20 years to scoop the Palme d’Or:<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Derek Elley of Variety <\/strong>is more restrained<\/a> and doubts it will do much business outside fo France:<\/p>\n

Performances and direction, rather than the yards of inconclusive dialogue, are what keep Arnaud Desplechin’s ‘A Christmas Tale’ from curdling in its own juices.<\/p>\n

Dysfunctional family ensembler, just about held in focus by Catherine Deneuve’s regal perf as a mother who’s been diagnosed with liver cancer, is more tolerable and less pretentious than some of Desplechin’s previous talkfests, like ‘How I Got Into an Argument’ or ‘In the Company of Men’, but beyond Gaul faces only minimal business from hardcore addicts of the helmer and gabby French cinema.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ty Burr of The Boston Globe<\/strong> finds it very French and very funny<\/a>:<\/p>\n

…very French, very engrossing, often very funny, like a good, long novel you can’t put down.<\/p>\n

One of the jokes is watching Almaric and his ‘Diving Bell’ co-star Anne Consigny as a brother and sister who detest each other; one of its joys is watching Deneuve play opposite her daughter Chiara Mastroianni — playing a daughter-in-law Denueve’s character doesn’t much like.<\/p>\n

Mastroianni is looking more and more like her late father, and her performance is one of the many gems in this rambunctious, imperfect joy of a movie.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Fabien Lemercier of Cineuropa <\/strong>is impressed by many aspects of the film<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The film is as brilliant as it is cruel, and brings together the sweetness of intelligence and cinematic know-how with its characters\u2019 overflowing bitterness.<\/p>\n

Its explosive elegance is near perfect, yet it successfully manages to keep the audience at an emotional distance.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Andrew O’Hehir of Salon <\/strong>is another huge fan of the film<\/a>:<\/p>\n

If this is not the obvious masterpiece on first viewing that “Kings and Queen” was, I found “A Christmas Tale” a marvelously rich visual, intellectual and emotional experience, one that I expect will grow deeper with repeat viewings.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

IFC have acquired the US distribution rights for the film.<\/p>\n

Here is the trailer (in French):<\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

> Un conte de Noel (A Christmas Tale)<\/a> at the IMDb
\n> IHT article on the film<\/a>
\n> Reuters report on Mathieu Amalric and the film<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Un conte de Noel (A Christmas Tale) screened last night and is the latest film from director Arnaud Desplechin, who made Kings and Queen in 2004. It is a drama about a dysfunctional family who gather together for the first time in years after a tragedy and stars Catherine Deneuve and Mathieu Amalric. Here is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,20],"tags":[197,151],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1741"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1741\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}