Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: A Christmas Tale/Un Conte de Noël (2008) - Desplechin and Amalric shred my patience in overlong and overstuffed drama

6/16/2018

A Christmas Tale/Un Conte de Noël (2008) - Desplechin and Amalric shred my patience in overlong and overstuffed drama

♥

A rave-filled, present-shaped poster for Arnaud Desplechin's A Christmas Tale

A family of very strained, strong-headed individuals have their internal conflicts, but this year they celebrate Christmas together, with the family's matriarch's deadly disease hanging over them all.

A Christmas Tale is written by Emmanuel Bourdieu (Poison Friends/Les Amitiés Maléfiques (2006)) and co-writer-director Arnaud Desplechin (Kings & Queen/Rois et Reine (2004)), based on the non-fiction book La Greffe (2004) by Jacques Asher and Jean-Pierre Jouet.
Catherine Deneuve (Dangerous Liaisons (2003, miniseries)) is incredibly beautiful and still richly erotic as the sick matriarch here in this very long French drama. It forces the brain synapses to work in the beginning in order to grasp the family structure and characters, but some time in A Christmas Tale is revealed to be a desert walk, which tires with its eagerness to use effects; both visually and narratively, (poems and narration are relayed directly to the camera again and again), with music, a rapid editing pace and, of course, with a dialog density that only rarely leaves a second for reflection. - People with serious cases of Francophilia may experience this elegy differently.
Mathieu Amalric (Struggle for Life/La Loi de la Jungle (2016)) is especially taxing in A Christmas Tale, - in fact, I found him exceedingly aggravating.
Never before has so much soup been boiled on questions of who and why and if they should help Deneuve out with a spinal transplant, - an issue that should seem pretty straight forward in my eyes. A Christmas Tale is at turns infuriating and boring, a wildly overrated Christmas movie for the very back corner of the closet.

Related posts:

2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2008 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2008 in films - according to Film Excess

Watch a trailer for the film with English subtitles here

Cost: 6.3 mil. $
Box office: 7.3 mil. $
= Big flop
[A Christmas Tale premiered 16 May (Cannes Film Festival, in competition) and runs 150 minutes. It was funded with participation of no less than 10 companies and support bodies. Shooting took place in France, including in Paris. The film opened #40 to a 63k $ first weekend in 7 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #25 and in 48 cinemas (different weeks) and grossed 1 mil. $ (13.7 % of the total gross). Its biggest market was the production country France with 5.2 mil. $ (71.2 %), and the 3rd biggest was Italy with 232k $ (3.2 %). The film won 1/9 César award nominations (France's Oscar) and was nominated for a European Film award. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3.5/4 star review, translating to approximately the opposite of this review. Desplechin returned with Jimmy P. (2013). Deneuve returned in I Want to See/Je Veux Voir (2008). A Christmas Tale is certified fresh at 86 % with a 7.6/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of A Christmas Tale?

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William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

William Hurt has passed away

Born in Washington D.C., Hurt's first film role was the lead in Altered States (1980). Later credits include Body Heat (1981), The Big Chill (1983), Gorky Park (1983), Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), for which he earned his only Oscar as Best Actor; Chilrdren of a Lesser God (1986), for which he was also Oscar-nominated; Broadcast News (1987), for which he was again Oscar-nominated; Smoke (1995), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), A History of Violence (2005), for which he was again Oscar-nominated; The Good Shepherd (2006), Into the Wild (2007), Robin Hood (2010) and many more. Hurt passed away at age 71. R.I.P.

Ivan Reitman has passed away

Born in Chechoslovakia, now Slovakia, Reitman's family fled the Soviet regime to Austria, then Toronto, when he was 4 years old. Reitman broke into movies as a director with Foxy Lady (1971). Later credits include Cannibal Girls (1973), Meatballs (1979), Stripes (1981), Ghostbusters (1984), Twins (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Kindergarten Cop (1990), Junior (1994), Father's Day (1997), Evolution (1998), No Strings Attached (2011), Draft Day (2014) and more. Reitman's son Jason Reitman is also a great filmmaker. Reitman passed away at age 75. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (5-24)

6/16/2018

A Christmas Tale/Un Conte de Noël (2008) - Desplechin and Amalric shred my patience in overlong and overstuffed drama

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Eagerly anticipating this week ... (4-24)

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