Kattiera Nana I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Lawbolisted Powerful

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

Bob Taylor I've sat through a couple of Desplechin-Bourdieu films (Esther Kahn, Comment je me suis dispute) that I've hated. Long, talky and pointless, I thought. But Un Conte is different; it carefully brings a family to life in all its complexity. The father is patient with those around him when he could easily be bitter and harsh: it is a superb performance by Jean Paul Roussillon. Catherine Deneuve as the mother glides through her part but we can't be critical because she gives the movie so much star power (just as Cary Grant did for four Hitchcock pictures).The children are very well acted. Henri will be a screw-up for the rest of his life but will win people's affection, certainly he did mine. Ivan's easy fatherhood skills and laissez-faire approach to his wife's infidelity are memorable. Elizabeth's attitude towards Henri is the most problematic thing in the film. We have to take it on faith that his behaviour has been so awful that she is justified in taking the action she does. Anne Consigny gives a moving performance as the sister with a grievance.

aFrenchparadox The problem with Desplechin's films is also what makes me love them, i.e. their mental-ness. I mean it's so mental that you sometimes doubt such messed-up families can exist. Cold mother who has never really loved any of her children, except maybe the dead one (and would she have loved him if he had lived?). Absolutely neurotic daughter who made her family banish her brother but never seems to wonder if maybe she messed up her own son's education. Obnoxious banned brother who enjoys to be able to save her mother to regain power over his sister and his mother. Obnoxious but so relevant sometimes. The youngest one and the cousin are less mental, it's true. Except for the fact that, younger, they decided between them and the obnoxious brother who should have the girl who would become the youngest one's wife. And the father who just does nothing but watching his family fighting without reacting. I am really not sure we could find a family so dysfunctioning. There is obviously real worse families but they just fall apart and don't stick together. This one is actually functioning by dysfunctioning. Anyway, all this obnoxiousness is jubilation material if you enjoy irreverence and boldness. And is played by a wonderful Catherine Deneuve and a never disappointing (except in James Bond) Mathieu Amalric. Emmanuelle Devos makes a short apparition which is of her usual talent, too. Some usual Desplechin hence, quite addressed to a particular type of people, quite snob, maybe elitist, but so amusing.

fonzactim I can't remember the last time a movie was so boring that I walked out. The Weatherman and The Island were both so bad that I thought about it but I even stayed to the end in those. This movie was incomprehensible, not funny and just went on and on and on. Like some other commentators, I wondered if parts were just French humor that I didn't get or if the characters were serious. I finally just gave up and tried napping because I didn't want to disturb my husband if he was enjoying it but he noticed and let me know that it was OKAY if I wanted to leave and out the door we went. He would like to know how it ended...if Denevue lived or died etc...(I don't even care).

writers_reign 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.