A Christmas Tale

A Christmas Tale (2008)

Un conte de Noël

The dilemma. The reunion

When their regal matriarch falls ill, the troubled Vuillard family come together for a hesitant Christmastime reunion. Among them is rebellious ne'er-do-well Henri and the uptight Elizabeth. Together under the same roof for the first time in many years, their intricate, long denied resentments and yearnings emerge again.

Date of release
2008-05-21
TMDB
6.8 / 10 (178)
Runtime
2h 32m
Genres
Comedy, Drama
Director
Arnaud Desplechin
Collection
The Paul Dédalus Collection

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Awards: 0 · Nominations: 1

A Christmas Tale is a 2008 French Christmas comedy-drama film co-written and directed by Arnaud Desplechin, starring Catherine Deneuve, Jean-Paul Roussillon, Mathieu Amalric, Anne Consigny, Melvil Poupaud, Emmanuelle Devos and Chiara Mastroianni. It tells the story of a family with strained relationships which gathers at the parents' home for Christmas, having just learned that their mother has leukemia. It was in competition for the Palme d'Or at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival.

Production

A Christmas Tale was written by Arnaud Desplechin and Emmanuel Bourdieu, who had previously collaborated on My Sex Life... or How I Got into an Argument (1996) and Esther Kahn (2000). Desplechin spent at least a year developing the screenplay, drawing upon literary and philosophical works as well as medical research.

Desplechin initially conceived the project as a French variation on the American Thanksgiving family-reunion film, constructing the narrative around relatives gathering in a single house. He compared the screenplay's structure to an Advent calendar, with successive scenes introducing different family members and revealing aspects of their relationships.

Another influence was La Greffe: entre biologie et psychanalyse, a study of organ transplantation by Jacques Ascher and Jean-Pierre Jouet. The book examines the psychological and ethical consequences of transplantation, including its effects on relationships between donors, recipients, and their families.

The screenplay also required mathematical consultation for a scene in which Abel and Claude calculate the probabilities associated with Junon's medical treatment. Mathematicians Wendelin Werner and Cédric Villani assisted with the scientific preparation of the sequence, which moves from a discrete probability model to a continuous one.

The film was produced by Pascal Caucheteux through Why Not Productions, in coproduction with France 2 Cinéma. Wild Bunch handled international sales, and BAC Films handled French distribution. Its budget was €6.36 million, with financial support including an advance on receipts from the Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée (CNC) and pre-sales to Canal+ and CinéCinéma.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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