TSPDT

Key Production Country: France
Key Genres: Drama, Romance, Thriller, Comedy Drama, Comedy, Family Drama, Ensemble Film, Mystery-Suspense
Key Collaborators: Pascal Caucheteux (Producer), Laurence Briaud (Editor), Mathieu Amalric (Leading Actor), Mike Kourtzer (Composer), Grégoire Sorlat (Producer), Eric Gautier (Cinematographer), Emmanuelle Devos (Leading Character Actress), Grégoire Hetzel (Composer), Thibault de Montalembert (Leading Actor), Emmanuel Bourdieu (Screenwriter), Julie Peyr (Screenwriter), Irina Lubtchansky (Cinematographer)

"One of the key French filmmakers of the post–New Wave, Desplechin makes endlessly surprising, gloriously messy movies that burst at the seams with richly realized characters, freewheeling stylistic invention, and wide-ranging allusions to art, literature, and film history… Though they deal with weighty themes—mortality, heartbreak, the traumas of history—Desplechin’s films are rarely heavy, buoyed by streaks of mischievous comedy and the director’s deeply felt humanism. Encompassing all the pathos, romance, comedy, and strangeness of real life, these are films to get lost in." - Film at Lincoln Center

"Desplechin’s films are deeply human, emotional, obsessional. Tragedy and comedy combine, revolving around a few characters and focussing on family dynamics – between parent and child or amongst friends or couples. His characters of Greek (Junon), Joycean (Nora, Paul Dedalus), and biblical names (Ismaël, Abel, Elias), are emotionally volatile, melancholic – a mixture of strengths and weaknesses. They often seem to react disproportionately as they reappraise themselves, striving to break free from their inner kingdoms where they are trapped, before eventually finding themselves, and some greater insight or acceptance is gained. Resolution brings sympathy from the viewer towards them." - Irish Film Institute, 2013

"A defining luminary of contemporary French cinema, Arnaud Desplechin was born in 1960 in Roubaix, France, where many of his masterworks are set. In the 1980s, he worked as a cinematographer on films by Nico Papatakis and Éric Rochant before directing his own features. Each moment of a Desplechin film—including his international breakout My Sex Life… or How I Got Into an Argument, his masterfully tempestuous A Christmas Tale, and this year’s Cannes premiere Brother and Sister—is electrified by his genuine curiosity about human relationships, which makes his delightfully sprawling films feel achingly true-to-life." - Le Cinéma Club, 2022

"Take each of Desplechin’s films on its own terms and you’re left breathless by the incredible emotional and philosophical range of the filmmaking. But once you’ve been hooked, beware; despite the director’s humble refusals to the contrary, it is almost impossible to see Desplechin’s work without experiencing a sublime architecture, the sensation of being pulled back and forth across a dazzling array of rhymes; images and situations, characters and dialogues, each film, each moment adding exponentially to the mystery of the whole." - Twhalliii (IndieWire, 2008)

"French director Arnaud Desplechin’s charmingly self-referential body of work is an ode to the beautiful and often regrettable mishaps of youth, and how they reverberate throughout his characters’ lives." - Carlos Aguilar (MovieMaker, 2023)

"There are many levels of meaning in all my movies, but I don’t think that there is a level that is nobler or wiser than another. To think this way would be stupid. I believe that all the spectators are equal, so if one wants to look at film as pure entertainment and chooses to merely enjoy the nice lighting—it’s perfect for that. But if others want to dig, they can go deeper. But they won’t be more right. They’ll just be deeper. It’s like listening to a popular song where I can recognize that there’s an allusion to some obscure American poet, but I can also just enjoy the melody and share it with my girlfriend, and that’s enough. I think that’s what I love about popular arts—they belong to everyone. There’s not a proper way to understand them." - Arnaud Desplechin (Reverse Shot, 2006)