A CHRISTMAS TALE (UN CONTE DE NOEL)

Starts Friday, December 19th

"It filled me with unadulterated joy." - A.O. Scott, THE NEW YORK TIMES

"A plum pudding of a movie, rich with craziness, melodrama, and cinematic brio." - J. Hoberman, THE VILLAGE VOICE

"Marvelous and exhilarating! 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 alive." - Kenneth Turan, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES

Celebrated French writer/director Arnaud Desplechin (Kings and Queens) teams up with the Queen of French Cinema, Catherine Deneuve (Indochine, The Young Girls of Rochefort), for this rich, sprawling and darkly humorous drama of a fragmented family coming apart at the seams during the holidays.
Abel (Jean-Paul Roussillon, The Girl From Paris) and Junon (Deneuve) had two children, Joseph and Elizabeth. Victim of a rare genetic condition, Joseph's only hope was a bone marrow transplant. As they and Elizabeth were incompatible, his parents conceived a third child in the hope of saving their son. But little Henri too was unable to help his brother, and Joseph died at the age of seven. The Vuillard family has never recovered.
Many years have passed, and family relationships are more strained than ever. In particular, those between Elizabeth, authoritarian head of the family and Henri (Mathiue Amalric, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly), a cynical drop out who divides his time between women and drink. After a violent argument, Elizabeth banishes her feckless brother, cutting him off from his nephew, her son Paul - a tortured adolescent beset by serious mental problems.
Masterfully directed and acted, by turns savage, bittersweet, darkly comic and unbearably moving, A CHRISTMAS TALE shows internationally acclaimed director Desplechin at the height of his powers.

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