Tag Archives: arnaud desplechin

Ismael’s Ghosts: A Convoluted Story With Stellar Acting

foreign films, , ,

Co-written and directed by Arnaud Desplechin, Ismael’s Ghosts is a convoluted story about Ismael’s life as a filmmaker. His wife Carlotta, played by Marion Cotillard, who ran away twenty-one years ago, returns and is back just as he is about to start shooting his next movie.

Please be patient as I try to explain the movie because it is French and there are so many layers to the movie.

On the other hand, Ismael, played by Mathieu Amalric, has been busy rebuilding a life for himself with Sylvia, played by Charlotte Gainsbourg, and working on his next feature film. Ismael’s trials and tribulations open up the story becomes more and more layered with dissociated situations.

The one storyline that I found easy to follow was when Carlotta returns and moves into the beach house with Ismael and Sylvia. Creating an uncomfortable situation far beyond the old saying threes a crowd. Her arrival complicates their lives. I yearned to see this story unfold and be the only story in the movie.

Other situations become apparent with various ghosts from Ismael’s past. The story introduces several characters. One is Ivan, played by Louis Garrel, a diplomat who journeys around the world without understanding it. The same goes for the title character, Ismael. He is a film director who journeys through his life without understanding it either.

Desplechin says the movie is five films compressed into one. Ismael is harried. And yet up in his attic, Ismael tries to hold all the threads of what is happening together. Throughout the movie are twists and turns with each scene raw and brutal.

Gainsbourg is brilliant as Sylvia who teaches Ismael how to live. Her acting career is extensive with Antichrist directed by Lars Von Trier. She won Best Actress, Cannes Film Festival 2009. She played Jane Eyre in Franco Zeffirelli’s Jane Eyre.

Gainsbourg’s scenes with Cotillard makes watching the movie worth it. Two powerhouse actresses playing off each other is real and heartbreaking. Cotillard’s acting career is just as impressive, though she is in more American movies than Gainsbourg. She worked with several American directors including Christopher Nolan, Robert Zemeckis, Woody Allen, and Rob Marshall. Cotillard won an Oscar, Cesar, and Golden Globe in 2008 for her role as Edith Piaf in the French movie La Vie En Rose directed by Olivier Dahan.

Amalric may seem familiar to Wes Anderson fans because he started in The Grand Budapest Hotel. One of my favorite Anderson movies.

Desplechin career is well-known in France and Ismael’s Ghosts received the honor with 2017 Cannes Film Festival – World Premiere and Opening Night Film.

Julie Peyr and Lea Mysius co-wrote the screenplay with Desplechin. Peyr also worked on the screenplay for Desplechin’s The Golden Days.

The movie is in French with English subtitles.

 

My Golden Days

drama, foreign films, indie, romance, , , ,

MGD Train Kiss SceneDirected by Arnaud Desplechin, My Golden Days is a French film that is a masterpiece.  The movie follows Paul Dedalus played by Mathieu Amalric, who is brilliant in The Grand Budapest Hotel and is best known for playing the villain in James Bond’s Quantum of Solace.

In My Golden Days, Amalric reprises the role from Desplechin’s My Sex Life…Or How I Got into an Argument to which he experiences a series of flashbacks – most notably on his first heart-wrenching love affair.

Desplechin next installment is a series of flashbacks as well as the story follows Paul’s flashbacks as a younger Paul, play innocently by Quentin Dolmaire, and Esther, played compellingly by Lou Roy-LeCollinet, who received a Cesar nomination. Both deliver stunning performances in their first film debut.

My Golden Days reflects on the seemingly unforgettable romance shared between the two young lovers as they attempt to salvage their relationship despite the distance that keeps them apart as Paul attends University with their shifting circles of friends and betrayal. Although an unlikely pair, both Esther and Paul compensate for one another. It is endearing to watch Esther deliver as the brutally honest, sometimes haughty counterpart, while Paul remains the understanding and forgiving sense of security she’s always sought after. As Paul reflects on his formative years, his emotions run rampant and prove that Esther has left a deep impression on his heart that not even time can erase.

The story is about the older Paul Dédalus, an anthropologist preparing to leave Tajikistan. Reflecting on his life, he has a series of flashbacks starting from his childhood in Roubaix—his mother’s attacks of madness, his father’s alienating depression. He remembers a student trip to the USSR, where a clandestine mission led him to offer up his own identity for a young Russian, whom he considered a phantom twin for the remainder of his life. He remembers University life and returning to his hometown to party with his sister and her best friend, his shifting circle of friends and their casual betrayals. And most of all he remembers Esther, the beautiful, rude, haughty soul, and love of his life.

The special features are worth mentioning and include a discussion with director Arnaud Desplechin, a behind-the-scenes look at the casting session for Paul and Esther, and a sit down with the cast.

International Kissing Day is every July 6th, and My Golden Days may prove to be the best movie to watch on this celebrated day.

https://youtu.be/UUs1Fh1qWxs