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Product Description
Arnaud Desplechin comes home for Christmas in his outrageous, daring and emotionally bountiful new movie. Catherine Deneuve is Junon, the family matriarch, who greets the news of her life-threatening illness with calm equanimity. Jean-Paul Roussillon is her wise, tender husband. Desplechin regular Mathieu Amalric is the black sheep, banished from the family by his imperious sister (Anne Consigny, both actors last seen in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly), who arrives with his bemused Jewish girlfriend in tow (Emmanuelle Devos). Melvil Poupaud is the most sensitive of the children, happily married to the divine Chiara Mastroianni.
It's hard to miss with such a cast, but A Christmas Tale is much, much more than a good ensemble comedy. In this midwinter night's dream, unrequited love collides with bitter resentment, nostalgic longing crosses paths with abject fear, and pure hatred gives way to vivacious affection.
Product Description
United Kingdom released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: LANGUAGES: French ( Dolby Digital 5.1 ), English ( Subtitles ), SPECIAL FEATURES: 2-DVD Set, Documentary, Interactive Menu, Scene Access, SYNOPSIS: Arnaud Desplechin comes home for Christmas in his outrageous, daring and emotionally bountiful new movie. Catherine Deneuve is Junon, the family matriarch, who greets the news of her life-threatening illness with calm equanimity. Jean-Paul Roussillon is her wise, tender husband. Desplechin regular Mathieu Amalric is the black sheep, banished from the family by his imperious sister (Anne Consigny, both actors last seen in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly), who arrives with his bemused Jewish girlfriend in tow (Emmanuelle Devos). Melvil Poupaud is the most sensitive of the children, happily married to the divine Chiara Mastroianni. It's hard to miss with such a cast, but A Christmas Tale is much, much more than a good ensemble comedy. In this midwinter night's dream, unrequited love collides with bitter resentment, nostalgic longing crosses paths with abject fear, and pure hatred gives way to vivacious affection. SCREENED/AWARDED AT: Cannes Film Festival, European Film Awards, ...A Christmas Tale ( Un conte de Noël )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Yet another middle class soap opera that the French do with such sophistication. Similar to Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train in which a dysfunctional group of family and friends travel from Paris to Limages to attend a funeral. A Christmas Tale tells the story of a reunion instigated by Junon the matriarch who needs to gather all the family together not just for Christmas but for reasons of her own. Catherine Deneuve, who still has a very commanding presence on screen, plays Junon wife of Abel (Jean-Paul Roussillon), mother of Anne Consigny's Elizebeth a reclusive playwright. The popular French actor Mathieu Amalric is the older son Henri a raging alcoholic who relishes confrontation. While Melvil Poupaud plays the youngest son Ivan who is the most unaffected of the three children. As the family members gather together for Christmas they attempt to reconcile the past and plan the future during which their own private tensions and affections are re-awakened. Terrific performances, as you would expect, from this high profile cast. A deliciously entertaining film. Best French film of 2008?
23 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
I have never written review for a film before, but this film is worth it, easily for me one of my favourite films of last year.
The first thing to say is this not really a Christmas film as the story happens to unfold at that time of year, the best time for family drama, as when else do you get an entire family under one roof, for more than an afternoon. It is a very worthy addition to the Desplechin already impressive cannon, it is a very funny dark ensemble film with absolutely pitch perfect performances from everyone, especially for me anyway Deneuve, Rossillon and as usual Amalric.
If you want to watch a brillant almost novel like film where you believe and care about the characters than is the film for you...otherwise stick to Four Christmas's.
And this introduced me to a brillant Chrismas song I had not heard before, Otis Reading's Merry Christmas Baby, perfect.
The first thing to say is this not really a Christmas film as the story happens to unfold at that time of year, the best time for family drama, as when else do you get an entire family under one roof, for more than an afternoon. It is a very worthy addition to the Desplechin already impressive cannon, it is a very funny dark ensemble film with absolutely pitch perfect performances from everyone, especially for me anyway Deneuve, Rossillon and as usual Amalric.
If you want to watch a brillant almost novel like film where you believe and care about the characters than is the film for you...otherwise stick to Four Christmas's.
And this introduced me to a brillant Chrismas song I had not heard before, Otis Reading's Merry Christmas Baby, perfect.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By G. Bailey
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Forget the title.Christmas has nothing to do with it.What makes this a great film is the way the tale brings all the characters together so that they all interact brilliantly with one another and we care for them.A tour de force by director Desplechin and co-writer Bordieu.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
By P. D. Allen
Format:DVD
Others have given the story and tenor of this film. I'll just say that Conte de Noël is one of the best two contemporary films that I saw in 2008. It was shown at the 2008 Melbourne International Film Festival and at a mini-Festival put on by Alliance Francaise in 2009. Conte de Noël never received a commercial release in Melbourne, perhaps nowhere in Australia.
Since seeing it I have tracked down copies of all Arnaud Desplechin's films and watched each at least three times, despite most being out of print (the early ones are pre-2000 DVD issues, with pretty dire transfers). One major film has never been been released on silver disc at all AFAIK, but fortuitously the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI, a government institution) put on a retrospective season in late 2008 which included it, and subsequently it was shown twice on our government multicultural TV channel SBS. Needless to say, I have multiple backup copies on two PVRs.
IMO Desplechin is a leading contemporary director who is yet to get his proper due, and all his early films deserve re-releases with decent mastering.
And there is a story here for someone to write. Desplechin, right from his first feature film La Sentinelle (1992) through to Conte de Noël, has consistently used an ensemble group of actors, mostly young and clearly his generation, who must share some common, most likely film educational, background. It is fascinating to watch this group develop over seventeen years. Not only has Desplechin emerged from this group, but also at least two independently famous major acting talents: Emmanuelle Devos and Mathieu Amalric.... Read more ›
Since seeing it I have tracked down copies of all Arnaud Desplechin's films and watched each at least three times, despite most being out of print (the early ones are pre-2000 DVD issues, with pretty dire transfers). One major film has never been been released on silver disc at all AFAIK, but fortuitously the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI, a government institution) put on a retrospective season in late 2008 which included it, and subsequently it was shown twice on our government multicultural TV channel SBS. Needless to say, I have multiple backup copies on two PVRs.
IMO Desplechin is a leading contemporary director who is yet to get his proper due, and all his early films deserve re-releases with decent mastering.
And there is a story here for someone to write. Desplechin, right from his first feature film La Sentinelle (1992) through to Conte de Noël, has consistently used an ensemble group of actors, mostly young and clearly his generation, who must share some common, most likely film educational, background. It is fascinating to watch this group develop over seventeen years. Not only has Desplechin emerged from this group, but also at least two independently famous major acting talents: Emmanuelle Devos and Mathieu Amalric.... Read more ›
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Agnetha
Format:DVD
This is more like a soap opera than a film as it is very long. It has all the ingredients of a soap and a dysfunctional family with their own problems all coming together for Christmas for a very good reason. It is definately my kind of film but I can understand it not being for some people.
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful
By MarkusG
Format:DVD
"A Christmas Tale" is similar to Desplechins earlier film, "Kings and Queen". Both films are about two and a half hours, displays a large gallery a of characters and has the same actors: Catherine Deneuve, Emmanuelle Devos, Mathieu Amalric and more. Amalric even plays a similar immature and irresponsible person. It is an entertaining story about human relations, beautifully shot and with characters interesting enough. 2,5 hours is a long time for a movie, but with so many characters to follow it feels a little too crowded. Maybe the story would suit a novel better.
The transfer/picture of the DVD is very good and sharp. There is also a whole extra disc with a documentary about the directors family /haven't watched it though).
The transfer/picture of the DVD is very good and sharp. There is also a whole extra disc with a documentary about the directors family /haven't watched it though).
By HelF
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Classical art french film set in a dysfunctional family. If you like french humour you will be served as it is just it.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
I'm Glad They Don't Live Next Door to Me
A Christmas Tale, "Un Conte de Noel," (2008. This unconventional tale of a dysfunctional family's agonizingly strained, animosity-filled Christmas reunion was written and directed... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Stephanie DePue
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing
This is another French film that gets considerably better ratings here than it does on Amazon France, where roughly half of the reviewers pan it and the average vote is three... Read more
Published on 3 May 2010 by R. Napier
1.0 out of 5 stars
please make it stop ... please!
'A Christmas Tale' is a terrible waste of time and talent. Nevertheless, because it's a 'French Language Film' (tm) it was somewhat inevitable that glowing reviews would flow like... Read more
Published on 17 Jan 2010 by J. Fryar
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