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

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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?

Cosmopolis (2012) - Cronenberg/DeLillo/Pattinson's speculative limo lullaby

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Robert Pattinson, look up! You're on the poster for David Cronenberg's Cosmopolis

A billionaire currency speculator drives around New  York in his Lincoln limo and bangs women and talks about money, markets, reality and his prostate, while anarchists protest outside. 
Cosmopolis, - the first novel by US writer Don DeLillo (Mao II (1992)) to be adapted onto the big screen, - is like listening to a group of philosophically inclined commerce students on drugs for almost two hours ...
One learns fast that plot is the last goal of the movie, which mostly takes place in the stretched vehicle and consists of a long row of prolonged conversations of speculative kinds. Big stars like Juliette Binoche enter the film shortly, - in her case mostly just to screw the uninteresting lead Robert Pattinson, which seems bizarre.
The gallery of characters is fundamentally very alienated and cerebrally concentrated, and no real emotions are engaged by watching Cosmopolis. Mostly, it seems ridiculous that all the characters wish to discuss philosophy - all the time.
The film instead seems like an invitation to read DeLillo's book, (which it is said to have adapted very loyally), - or to fall asleep.
Cosmopolis might very well be the worst film great Canadian director David Cronenberg (Eastern Promises (2007)) has ever done. It is extremely tiring.

Related posts:

David Cronenberg: 2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
A History of Violence (2005) or, Who Is Tom Stall?
The Brood (1979) or, Marital Fury and Craze!

Watch the trailer that makes Cosmopolis seem interesting

Budget: 20.5 mil. $
Box office: 6 mil. $
= Huge flop

What do you think of Cosmopolis?
Is Robert Pattinson an actor worthy of the attention and roles he gets? 
Why/why not?