Thursday, December 21 | 7:30 pm
Directed with idiosyncratic flair by leading French auteur Arnaud Desplechin (My Golden Days), A Christmas Tale imbues a simple yuletide reunion story with high drama and sparkling screwball wit. Having invited her bickering, multigenerational brood home for the holidays, matriarch Junon Vuillard (Catherine Deneuve) announces that she is in dire need of a bone-marrow transplant from a blood relative. In the wake of her revelation, the dysfunctional Vuillard clan spends the next few days veering between drunken fights, sober confessions, adolescent hijinks, and moments of heartfelt connection and generosity. Featuring charismatic performances from the great Deneuve and a remarkable ensemble cast that includes Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Devos, and Anne Consigny, A Christmas Tale is an epic, thrillingly inventive comedy-drama whose novelistic sweep and bittersweet emotional complexity recalls Wes Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums. A modern holiday classic, A Christmas Tale grows richer and more resonant with each viewing.
Director Arnaud Desplechin | 2008 | In French with English subtitles | 152 minutes | NR | 35mm
