A Lot Like 'Christmas'

This Year's Big French Hope

21.05.08 / Considering that so much of what happens in Cannes during the film festival carries international implications, it’s easy to overlook that fact that Cannes remains a quintessentially French affair. As such, a lot of French hopes are riding on Un Conte de Noël (A Christmas Tale), the Arnaud Desplechin movie that kicked off the festival’s official competition and opens in cinemas throughout France today. Un Conte de Noël concerns a troubled family coming to terms with death and disease, and it is not without a few humourous moments. Desplechin says he got the idea for the film after reading a psychiatrist’s book about patients undergoing bone-marrow transplants. Cannes audiences (though perhaps not the same audiences queueing for Sunday's Indiana Jones premiere) have responded enthusiastically to what may be the festival's brainiest offering. But what’s even more surprising is that Desplechin’s film found a U.S. distributor before the festival even opened. And just when you were thinking that Americans couldn’t be bothered to listen to anyone speaking French anymore.... — R.K.