(2008; Un Conte de Nöel, French) I watched director/co-writer Arnaud Desplechin's dark dramedy of a dysfunctional family's reunion at Christmas, rich in textual texture (like watching a book evolve from words into images into events - not only because I was reading subtitles for over two and a half hours), on Christmas night: not recommended as a holiday entertainment (unless you are French or fluent in it).

The Vuillards, who have suffered tragedy and disunity, are once again in the throes of anguish. Back in the early '70s, the parents, Abel (Jean-Pierre Rousillon) and Janon (Catherine Deneuve), lost their first child Joseph, six years of age, to Burkitt's lymphoma. During Joseph's illness, having a daughter Elizabeth as well, they conceived a third in hopes of finding a compatible donor to save Joseph's life. Henri was a disappointment, and Joseph died. Eventually a fourth child Ivan arrived.

Grief has been Abel's foundation upon which he has built (thanks to his fortune in the fabric-dying business) a castle of compassion for his children. However, Elizabeth (Anne Consigny), a successful playwright, inhabits "a sterile, unhappy" existence, as though in perpetual mourning (as she tells her therapist) for the older brother she could not save, with her husband Claude (Hippolyte Girardot) and sensitive teenage son Paul (Emile Berling), whose recent mental breakdown may result in his being institutionalized.

After paying off Henri's debts six years earlier, Elizabeth's condition for bailing out her brother was permanent banishment from her sight. Hated by his sister, disregarded by his mother, Henri (Mathieu Amalric), an alcoholic and perpetual ne'er-do-well, living in languishment from the loss of his bride Madeleine in a car crash only a month after their wedding many years before, receives a personal invitation from his nephew Paul (on Abel's behalf) to attend the Christmas celebration. He sends his sister a poetic, rambling letter, concerning his years of exile.

Their two young boys, Basile and Baptiste, already with the grandparents, Ivan (Melvil Poupaud) and his beautiful wife Sylvia (Chiara Mastroianni), along with Simon (Laurent Capelluto), an artist and close cousin by way of Janon's deceased brother, take the train from Paris to Roubaix for the holiday get-together.

In addition to their coming to be with Abel and Janon, the family members - also to be joined by Rosaimée, Abel's deceased mother's friend - are congregating to find out who among them may be a compatible bone-marrow donor for Janon, who has a rare cancer. The odds for her survival, with or without a transplant, as Claude calculates the probabilities, are poor (like playing Russian roulette): even with a compatible donor's contribution, the infusion of bone marrow might kill her (because of GVH - graft-versus-host disease) through degeneration of her organs and combustion. Further complicating her chances is the fact that there is a 5% possibility that she's not even sick.

In a downpour, Henri arrives unexpectedly with his Jewish girlfriend Faunia (Emmanuelle Devos) and good news: "You can count on me," since his blood test indicates his being a compatible donor. But this raises fresh antagonism from Elizabeth because Paul also is compatible: "He's fit for something," trying to dissuade Janon ("I'm taking back what's mine") from choosing Henri (he is "the disease").

Faunia (on an outing shopping with Janon, who tells her, "You took the one I don't like") maintains her calm in the storms of controversy (though she eventually departs on Christmas eve, Henri taking her to the station before going with his mother to midnight mass); Claude finally shows up, punching out Henri for being insulting, then leaves only to once again return; a family friend, Spatafora, brings a gift of a gold heart on a necklace for his childhood sweetheart Elizabeth, delivered through Simon; Sylvia, who pronounces her in-laws as weirdoes, hears a disturbing revelation from Rosaimée that Henri and Simon decided to let Ivan have her; Ivan repeatedly asks Elizabeth to explain the reason (Sylvia suggests an incident of incest) for her longstanding enmity toward Henri.

Inserted into the action, Janon as well as her daughter and daughter-in-law each make a confessional soliloquy for the audience. Curiously, most of the music (LPs played on a turntable) and the television programs in Abel and Janon's home are in English and American, suggestive of the crass commercialism of Christmas infecting every culture like a cancer.

Click here for links to places to buy or rent this movie in video and/or DVD format, or to buy the soundtrack, posters, books, even used videos, games, electronics and lots of other stuff. I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.

Copyright © 2008 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

Patrick Ivers can be reached via e-mail at .