A Christmas Tale (Un conte de Noel)
23
Days to DVD Release
December 1, 2009
- Synopsis
- The devastating reverberations of a profound tragedy echo through generations of a long-suffering French family in this emotional family drama from director Arnaud Desplechin....
- Read Full Synopsis
- Director(s)
- Arnaud Desplechin
- Distributor(s)
- IFC
- MPAA Rating
- Not Rated
- Runtime
- 143 min.
Critic Reviews
With at least nine primary characters and running two and a half hours, it's a big, fat novel of a movie - a domestic epic that fuses bitterness and forgiveness in completely satisfying ways.Read the full review
A movie that is almost indecently satisfying and at the same time elusive, at once intellectually lofty -- marked by allusions to Emerson, Shakespeare and Seamus Heaney as well as Nietzsche -- and as earthy as the passionate provincial family that is its heart and cosmos and reason for being.Read the full review
What results is a captivating portrait of the most gorgeously fractious dysfunctional family.Read the full review
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Headlines
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Making Plans For Lena (Non ma fille, tu n'iras pas danser)
09/09/09 While "Love Songs" and "Dans Paris" revealed prolific filmmaker Christophe Honore to be a direct descendant of the French New Wave, he heads straight into Arnaud Desplechin territory with the turbulent family drama "Making Plans for Lena." Set predominantly in a country house, and then a Parisian apartment, where the titular femme (Chiara Mastroianni) dukes it out with parents, siblings, a former spouse and ultimately herself, this rather loose-hinged version of "A Christmas Tale" is only partially held together by Honore's direction, though overall dramatic impact remains diffuse. | Variety -
IFC upgrades Criterion deal
09/02/09 Several titles from the IFC Films library will be getting the full bells-and-whistles treatment on Blu-ray and DVD, thanks to a deal between IFC and top-shelf homevid distrib the Criterion Collection. | Variety -
Cross-Continental Buzz: 'A Prophet'
09/02/09 His bold choices in casting -- exclusively using non-pros -- and production design -- re-creating a jail environment, which hiked the budget to $17 million -- paid off at Cannes with rave reviews and a Jury Grand Prix. Hengameh Panahi, topper of pic's sales company and co-producer Celluloid Dreams, says "A Prophet" nailed few pre-sales partly because of its subject matter, but truly became a must-see after its Cannes screening. | Variety -
IFC, Criterion pact for homevid
09/01/09 Several titles from the IFC Films library will be getting the full bells-and-whistles treatment on Blu-ray and DVD thanks to a new deal between IFC and top-shelf homevid distrib the Criterion Collection. | Variety -
The High Life (La Grande vie)
07/15/09 A down-on-his-luck philosophy professor aims for "The High Life," yet winds up turning into a first-rate lowlife, in actor-turned-filmmaker Emmanuel Salinger's uproarious but uneven debut feature. | Variety -
Wild Grass (Les Herbes folles)
06/09/09 At the ripe age of 87, and exactly half a century since dropping a cinematic atom bomb with "Hiroshima mon amour," Alain Resnais continues his career-long experiment in filmmaking with the playfully flamboyant melodrama "Wild Grass." | Variety -
Wild Grass (Les Herbes folles)
05/19/09 At the ripe age of 87, and exactly half a century since dropping a cinematic atom bomb with "Hiroshima mon amour," Alain Resnais continues his career-long experiment in filmmaking with the playfully flamboyant melodrama "Wild Grass." | Variety -
92% Summer Hours
05/16/09 French director Olivier Assayas (BOARDING GATE, IRMA VEP) subverts expectations with this empathetic drama about the fading relevance of objects as generations pass from one to the next. | Rotten Tomatoes -
93% Summer Hours
05/14/09 French director Olivier Assayas (BOARDING GATE, IRMA VEP) subverts expectations with this empathetic drama about the fading relevance of objects as generations pass from one to the next. | Rotten Tomatoes -
Auteurs keep buyers busy at Cannes
05/13/09 The absence of high-profile English-language films with U.S. stars make this year's Festival de Cannes something less than an acquisitions hotbed for the bigger specialty divisions. | The Hollywood Reporter

