Clearly in one respect at least a disciple of Jacques Rivette, Arnaud Desplechin doesn't do brief. Presumably he sees anything under two hours as a one-reeler and tends to deliver around two and a half hours as a mean average. He also has a tendency to use actors over and over - for example Manu Devos, Mathieu Amlaric and Catherine Deneuve all appeared in Kings and Queen, albeit Deneuve was little more than a cameo there whilst she here she gets centre stage as the matriarch of a dysfunctional family that makes Gene O'Neill's haunted Tyrones look like the Waltons. Whatever you may think of the plot and length you can't fault the acting and Anne Consigny is especially effective as the elder sister metaphorically wearing Masha Black in mourning for her life. It's a great big roller-coaster ride of a movie and ultimately rewarding.
Review of A Christmas Tale
