Arnaud Desplechin

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tenia
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Re: Arnaud Desplechin

#76 Post by tenia » Mon Jan 20, 2020 3:37 am

NABOB OF NOWHERE wrote:
Sun Jan 19, 2020 5:07 pm
Re the local displeasure - Arnaud's handling and portrayal of his characters are light years away from Bruno's so I doubt whether he'll ever receive the same degree of flak! (Add smiley emoji of you choice)
As I wrote, it certainly isn't that bad, but still. And there were a few times (including, precisely, in Louis' voice over) that seemed like pointlessly piling on clichés of the derelict town/area and probably didn't help. It exacerbated our impression that the whole voice-over and christian stuff were superfluous.
But this made me feel of Dumont, whose name you can't even pronounce in some of the villages he shot his earlier movies because it might get you thrown out.

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Re: Arnaud Desplechin

#77 Post by NABOB OF NOWHERE » Mon Jan 20, 2020 7:51 am

tenia wrote:
Mon Jan 20, 2020 3:37 am
NABOB OF NOWHERE wrote:
Sun Jan 19, 2020 5:07 pm
Re the local displeasure - Arnaud's handling and portrayal of his characters are light years away from Bruno's so I doubt whether he'll ever receive the same degree of flak! (Add smiley emoji of you choice)

But this made me feel of Dumont, whose name you can't even pronounce in some of the villages he shot his earlier movies because it might get you thrown out.
I wonder how the people of Orleans feel about Bruno?

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Re: Arnaud Desplechin

#78 Post by barryconvex » Wed Jan 22, 2020 2:51 am

I spent the holiday weekend catching up with Desplechin whose films I ignored for some reason despite my unreserved love of A Christmas Tale. I don't really know why I didn't look into the rest of his output earlier (maybe I was waiting for English friendly blu rays to be issued?) but better late than never. Out of the three I watched-Kings & Queen, My Sex Life and Three Souvenirs Of My Youth (I refuse to use the English title given to Souvenirs)- it was the latter that I responded to the most. They're all excellent and filled with complex individuals but Paul Dedalus is one of the smartest, fully realized and greatest characters of 21st century cinema. I'm fine with the film's first two chapters but the third, the section of Souvenirs that chronicles his remembrances of his introduction to, courtship of and early relationship with his muse, Esther, is one of the high points of the past decade.

Stories of young love are rarely this convincing but Desplechin delves into the marrow of Paul and Esther's bond, burrowing deep into its highs and lows. Paul's memory has transformed her into someone who looks quite different from the adult Esther, but her personality is already formed. She's self assured (bordering on haughty) and independent with her beauty attracting a constant stream of male attention. She's the girl other girls of that age are envious of to the point of open hostility. Paul approaches her as someone with nothing to lose giving him a carefree sheen that dovetails with his low key charm and complete lack of bravado. She likes him, we can see what she sees in him and they spend more time together. When Paul eventually leaves for college in Paris she finds herself alone, something she's not accustomed to and unsure how to deal with. She writes him constant letters and Desplechin has her read some of them directly into the camera. A voiceover would only have diluted the effect of unfiltered longing and as delivered by Lou Roy-Lecollinet the intensity of her feelings and the impact they're having on her psyche cuts to the heart of her character. This all could've gone so very wrong a hundred different ways but for a remembrance of one's youth Desplechin keeps the mood keenly unsentimental. Paul may be a budding intellectual but he's still susceptible to the same hormonal impulses as anyone else his age. Esther is lonely and seeking solace. Add in a few hundred miles and it's a recipe for a relationship that is anything but placid, with each taking turns hurting the other and both having petty affairs along the way. Desplechin concludes things with an epilogue that, in a single scene, all but defines who Paul is and why he's such a memorable character. He can be a real prick sometimes or hopelessly immature sometimes but I deeply admire a man who doesn't forgive and forget when it comes to his true love.

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Re: Arnaud Desplechin

#79 Post by therewillbeblus » Wed Jan 22, 2020 5:22 pm

barryconvex wrote:
Wed Jan 22, 2020 2:51 am
Paul's memory has transformed her into someone who looks quite different from the adult Esther, but her personality is already formed. She's self assured (bordering on haughty) and independent with her beauty attracting a constant stream of male attention. She's the girl other girls of that age are envious of to the point of open hostility. Paul approaches her as someone with nothing to lose giving him a carefree sheen that dovetails with his low key charm and complete lack of bravado. She likes him, we can see what she sees in him and they spend more time together. When Paul eventually leaves for college in Paris she finds herself alone, something she's not accustomed to and unsure how to deal with. She writes him constant letters and Desplechin has her read some of them directly into the camera. A voiceover would only have diluted the effect of unfiltered longing and as delivered by Lou Roy-Lecollinet the intensity of her feelings and the impact they're having on her psyche cuts to the heart of her character. This all could've gone so very wrong a hundred different ways but for a remembrance of one's youth Desplechin keeps the mood keenly unsentimental. Paul may be a budding intellectual but he's still susceptible to the same hormonal impulses as anyone else his age. Esther is lonely and seeking solace. Add in a few hundred miles and it's a recipe for a relationship that is anything but placid, with each taking turns hurting the other and both having petty affairs along the way. Desplechin concludes things with an epilogue that, in a single scene, all but defines who Paul is and why he's such a memorable character. He can be a real prick sometimes or hopelessly immature sometimes but I deeply admire a man who doesn't forgive and forget when it comes to his true love.
I appreciate the more literal reading, even if I found the idea of skewed memory to be integral to understanding the depths of these scenes and made me come away with a different attitude towards the film. One of my favorite parts is his first meeting of Esther which you describe so well - where all the girls are hostile towards her and when he confronts her about her beauty and gives her attention she responds with self-obsessed declarations of her attractiveness as fact. I took this to be leaving space for the unknown degree by which Paul's memory is altering details to service his emotional charge of how he felt about her in that moment, and still does at the time he recollects said experiences. He wants to remember Esther as this goddess with a light around her, who is an angel and knows it. He also wants to believe that he was full of courage in approaching her and playing those games. Did the events occur exactly as they did? With memory, they never do, but that doesn't mean they didn't happen at all or that courage was lacking, it just speaks to the subjectivity of being removed from a moment and affected by personal history and emotion. Similarly, while the events of the relationship's trials and tribulations certainly occurred, Desplechin leaves open the possibility that this narrative is also jumbled based on resentment and pain. Does Paul give himself the satisfaction of his own effects on Esther, or did she just move away sans explanation? Was she actually affected by his behavior and then in turn reacted based on him or is that his preferred narrative to the truth of being deserted? What is the source of whatever alterations, if any, are being made within his memory: does he want to give himself credit to make sense of events, or did she hurt him so badly that he needs to smooth edges to rationalize the voids of meaning? Is it fair to say that "she hurt him" with Paul as the victim, or does this imply that he is owed something as the center of the world, and would it be more fair to say that "he felt hurt because of her actions"? Is it serving the psychology of the ego, the philosophy of the existential, the sensitivity of the emotional, or all three and more? What matters is his subjective perspective, and how he feels about the events and how his narrative plays out, not what is objective - because his subjective experience is objective reality to him and us in the schema of this story.

I didn't come away admiring Paul like you did, but I did relate to him, for how many of my memories of relationships are skewed to protect myself in some way, sourced in a sea of solipsistic shadowy corners via defense mechanisms even in a bright room of peripheral vision, or just through the natural process of growing with them through time and development? All of them to some degree, but what are closer to truth and what are farther from it don't matter as much as how they impact me, just like Paul, and the gratitude of Desplechin's validation is not to damn Paul or question the "source" as I have rhetorically, but to meditate on the value of his experiences and to empathize with even the "prick" and "hopelessly "immature" parts of us all, as well as the lovers, defenders, motivators, and sufferers within us and for that I think he sees hope that life will keep turning and we will keep gathering information to comprise our identities and continuously initiate growth, even if it's not visible to us or others.

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Re: Arnaud Desplechin

#80 Post by barryconvex » Thu Jan 23, 2020 3:54 am

A big part of the reason I reacted to Paul the way I did wasn't because I necessarily identified with him or his experiences but rather because I thought Desplechin identified with Paul and by extension presented something universal about love and empathy. Which is why, along with your thoughts about subjective memory and how our perspectives on our youths can shift to suit our needs, I agree with this completely:
...but to meditate on the value of his experiences and to empathize with even the "prick" and "hopelessly "immature" parts of us all, as well as the lovers, defenders, motivators, and sufferers within us and for that I think he sees hope that life will keep turning and we will keep gathering information to comprise our identities and continuously initiate growth, even if it's not visible to us or others.
It's by not whitewashing Paul's past or any of his lesser personality traits that Desplechin (and Amalric- how have i not yet mentioned how good he is?) crafted not just a great character but revealed something optimistic in his own nature. I think the key words you used were "empathize" and "growth". Love can grow out of empathy and a desire to be a better version of oneself is inherently optimistic.

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Re: Arnaud Desplechin

#81 Post by therewillbeblus » Thu Jan 23, 2020 9:03 am

I think your use of “optimistic in his own nature” is the ticket, rather than a conscious desire to be a better person Desplechin takes the humanist attitude many therapists try to drill into the heads of the problem-focused skeptics, which is that often times people are doing the best they can. Paul may exhibit qualities of someone who has empathy, self-pity, shreds of optimism and also hints at misanthropy, but Desplechin trusts that regardless of his degree or optimism or empathy, he will still experience growth because all experience gives us valuable information that services that process even if we don’t know it. It’s an incredibly optimistic way of looking at growth because it trusts that the person doesn’t need to be extra conscious and possess all the right qualities to get this from life, and both validating his humanity and taking it a step further to say “and he will continue to develop in spite of curious choices and even suppression” is pretty insightful and positive. So Paul is optimistic in his own nature, unique and yet the same, and possesses his own strengths and abilities for change even if he’s not always aware of this optimism.

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Re: Arnaud Desplechin

#82 Post by therewillbeblus » Wed Mar 25, 2020 7:29 pm

Rewatching My Sex Life and I love it even more, quickly becoming perhaps my second favorite film of the 90s. The early narration that bluntly sums up Paul’s solipsistic attempts at empathy through “thinking” people rather than feeling for them is so on point that I can barely contain myself. The reveal that this stated grandiose belief of saving his friends through thinking of them is that he has low self esteem and knows he cannot ever stop thinking rings true to the defenses of the cognitive-heavy person compensating for a lack of emotional intelligence, not a lack of emotionality, with the one skill they know they cannot shake. Instead of turning judgmental at the apparent narcissism we know that the narrator is only scraping the surface of Paul’s own surface-level thoughts when the truth is that his ego isn’t shameful but one that is searching for meaning, connection, and belongingness. Paul desperately wants to care about others and himself, and even if his default to only think will come up short at fulfilling his dreams, he still must use it as a tool, so he’s left with a psychology that is as complex as it is objectively both tragic in half-measured practice and commendable in quiet resilience, but completely honest and personally relatable.

Desplechin has spent his career drawing complex characters, but never has he shattered the myth that the self-absorbed aren’t bursting with affection better than here, opting for a humanistic approach that feels for the struggle to develop and access the strengths or abilities to fulfill one’s deepest social and individualized desires and needs. It’s no different than his brother who thinks his way into conforming to a tangible role in a priest to hold onto his spiritual-awakening-of-the-week following Marion Cotillard’s naked dance, grasping at meaning to desperately forge a position that will help him find connection with humanity.

This is expertly and concisely conceived in about a minute of voiceover during a cold NYE walk, and would maybe be my favorite short film if isolated from the nearly three hours of perfection on top of this to make it one of my favorite films, period. The meandering socialization and plights of identity are compulsively digestible, and when Paul persistently asks his friends and himself what he was like not ten years earlier in college with no trust in memory or secure sense of self, we understand him better than any deep analysis could ever do for us. It’s one of the most fascinating, raw, and validating films on anthropology ever made, thanks in large part to the humor that exists so naturally it reminds me of similar occurrences and dynamics from my own life.

Another favorite scene that emphasizes Paul’s growth in awareness throughout the film comes late when he essentially states that the reason life is worth living is that moment of fear when physically connecting with a woman by sticking your hand down her pants; initiating contact and the rush of insecurity that comes right before the sex, the dopamine rush of self-consciousness prior the culminating action. Paul recognizes that the meaning of life is in the process, and he’ll spend the rest of his life wavering along the scale of acceptance of that realization like the rest of us. The ending lays bare the simple truth that when we strip away all the fearful defenses and cognitively-driven solipsistic rationalizations, we change people and people change us just by participating in this life, as powerful a message as any. I’m a bit self-conscious myself in how much I identify with this film, but I think the ability to identify with the meat here is a good thing in and of itself.

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Re: Arnaud Desplechin

#83 Post by therewillbeblus » Fri Apr 10, 2020 12:49 pm

NABOB OF NOWHERE wrote:
Sun Jan 19, 2020 1:10 pm
Never Cursed wrote:
Fri Jan 17, 2020 1:25 am
Trailer for Oh, Mercy! which indicates that it will be released in Australia through Madman Films
Well perhaps this trailer, which paints a rather gung-ho police procedural, may do the business of inciting interest but those of us anxious to see something bearing the imprint of Arnaud can rest assured of a different ride. Certainly the first half of the film sports the hoary old chestnuts of grizzled police inspector and rookie junior patrolling the mean streets of feral life but this is very much an affair of two halves which evolves into a tragedy of wretchedness. The main character Daoud, a placid long serving inspector of Algerian descent cuts an almost Franciscan figure in his approach but exudes a charisma that demands respect from his underlings.
Desplechin has expressed his desire to paint a portrait of his home city Roubaix. Roubaix, in the most northern extreme of France where if you tripped over you would land in Belgium, was once a prosperous and proud textile city which has fallen into disrepair and disrepute, it's people abandoned and prey to predators. And so we are guided on a road trip illustrating the tragedy of the city and its inhabitants before we arrive within the confines of the interrogation room of the commissariat following the discovery of a callous murder. This is where we find Desplechin at his most refined with scenes both harrowing and moving which powerfully elucidate the tragic human cost of all this.
The English version will be called Oh Mercy which may hint at this or else some marketing whizz thinks it exudes the right level of True detective funkiness but the French original of "Roubaix une Lumière" perhaps expresses the author's ambiguous intentions more.
I too was coming into this with trepidation since it appeared to be a complete departure, but Desplechin still retained his skillful perception of complex social systems and behavior, applying his willingness to embrace multiple perspectives and take a grey portrait of a milieu to a seemingly more structured genre film on the surface. This still does embody those crime films with sustained tension (his most bleak other than the tough parts of Esther Kahn?) and at times felt like a dressed up episode of The Wire, though Desplechin continues to default to exploring a milieu to achieve perceptual expansion and character depth rather than measuring benchmarks of growth or emphasizing narrative progression.

That magical ephemerality Desplechin bastes his films in is still present. There is beautiful moment where the camera zooms in on a perps’ in the back of a police car with golden lights reflecting off their face that feels out of one of his early films, breaking the realism apart for a fleeting moment of pure emotional connection to this person, who we have no reason to invest in at this point other than to align for a brief instant with their humanity. We then step back to a state of evaluating cold details, using strategic tactics, and ethical positioning, but we continually return to the connective tissue of emotion like a magnet, such as a long scene of the process of arrest and imprisonment that feels like it’s in real time, full focus on the experience of a dignified person, not a criminal, facing the music.

And this is what I love about Desplechin: his ability to prioritize humanism over moral rigidity, focusing on a whole person and far less interested on if they’re lying, truthful, good, bad, right or wrong, but why- what drives them, and we keep reverting back to universal human traits: fear, desire, pain, empathy. There is no labeling of monsters here, but a respect for consequence and a concern for suffering. Watching this film through the lens of his other work, it seems inevitable that Desplechin would take this worldview to a space of typically strict rules: law, order, right, wrong; and I'm grateful that he did.

The performances in the second half are so good in eliciting our investment in every single character, and although I agree that the praying cop would normally feel out of place, I was glad this was included because it was one of the few sparkles of Desplechin's 'messiness' that he uses so well in his films to extend his reach of curiosity everywhere, without caring about disorganization, generously exploring all sides of human interest. Here he incorporates faith, family history, inexplicable trust in intuition, logic, rigidity, flexibility, resentment, and compassion in evaluation and practice. The chief inspector speaks up through a philosophy of social context and acceptance of loss that may be unrealistically optimistic about law enforcement but is beautifully optimistic about mankind (The Francis comparison is spot on). Desplechin even finds the ability to force a human connection during a pivotal scene of self-preservation
SpoilerShow
when the two women touch hands under the pillowcase re-enacting their murderous strangulation while betraying one another. Physical and emotional connection, morality in admitting immorality, and supreme isolation at once. It doesn't get more complex than that.
The French title seems to come from the inspector’s vague comment about how even in misery when the world doesn’t seem to make sense, it can all "light up." Is this ambiguity hinting at a violent explosion or a sense of peace and order that reminders us of the good in the world? Either way the point seems to be to embrace acceptance and find the gratitude through universal compassion. I like that title better, though Desplechin certainly feels mercy for all.

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Re: Arnaud Desplechin

#84 Post by domino harvey » Sat May 16, 2020 11:27 pm

I think the titular "lumiere" here also refers to the Christmas lights that open the film and then are taken down by the city workers at the end of the movie! Note that no one we visit in the film seems to have lights on their street (and, given they presumably aren't Christians, inside their homes). I think a procedural, like the true biographical tale of Jimmy P, hobbles a bit of Desplechin's freewheeling tendencies since it creates a necessary throughline that removes his uncertain narrative destinations from the equation, but his hyper-focus and disproportionate time expenditure are present, and the film is extremely well-crafted and acted. And I don't mind if it is a bit Law & Order-y, because I like Law & Order! I did wonder if the rapist subplot, which I assumed for most of the film was a wonderfully Desplechin-esque aside when it didn't get mentioned again until it was in a completely unnecessary way, was evidence that this script/film was once much longer and Desplechin just cut out the other story (shades of Magnolia where PTA still leaves in the "Tell me about the Worm" montage even though Orlando Jones' scene with the quiz kid got cut?). Roschdy Zem is terrific in his Cesar-winning perf-- calmness born from an earned confidence that is anything but blank. The exchange of looks TWBB mentions in the finale is exceptionally well-done as well. I have to say, I had a bit of a "Whoops, I'm not French" moment for most of the film, as I had no idea what Tercian was and until very late in the film when it actually appears, I thought from the context it was a local brand of Drano-- so understandably the crime seemed a bit more horrific to me in my confusion!

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Re: Arnaud Desplechin

#85 Post by tenia » Sun May 17, 2020 5:29 am

I liked a lot Roubaix but Zem's character borderline all-knowing character clearly made Desplechin breaking realism more than in a fleeting moment.
Once you get this will be an integer part of the movie, it's ok, but he feels more and more as a story device to make the movie going forward as the movie unfolds.
I however extremely disliked the god-loving voice over.

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Re: Arnaud Desplechin

#86 Post by domino harvey » Sun May 17, 2020 2:36 pm

There is a very intentional avoidance of complexity or conflict when it comes to the police in the film. The rookie detective is worried about screwing up, but he doesn't. The hot-headed detective used for rape victims is indeed sensitive to their needs. The know it all leader does in fact know it all. And so on down the line. After decades of films exploring the complexities of cops, it is perhaps the only radical methodology left: present them as they present themselves, in a way that makes them ultimately unknowable but allows them to be a sounding board for the characters that do feel alive, the pair of criminals at the heart of the film. Though again, I think Zem is really marvelous in a role that relies wholly on the presence he can bring to embodying it. This is heavy lifting that is harder than it looks, and the film would not work at all without him

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Re: Arnaud Desplechin

#87 Post by tenia » Sun May 17, 2020 3:14 pm

I share you view about Zem's importance to the whole movie. His César for this role is absolutely deserved.

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Re: Arnaud Desplechin

#88 Post by therewillbeblus » Sun May 17, 2020 4:15 pm

Zem's character embodies a confidence in intuition from experience, which in this film's world is synonymous to 'all-knowing' - but in a very specific circumstance of reading people's mannerisms rather than a omniscient godlike quality (he has imperfections and blind spots, a key detail being that he does not recall what led a family member dearest to him to resent him so intensely). Desplechin has always been interested in enigmas, and so why not have a detective who has this superpower-like skill? There are examples of these people existing all over the world, and whether you believe that they are 'hacks,' actual mediums with magic powers, or just people who are incredibly intuitive to certain energies, this isn't a novel idea. I enjoyed this morphing of the enigmatic with realism just as I do every time he's done it in every film he's made, with an open-mindedness to humbly express that he doesn't know the answers.

The "God-loving voiceover" is so out-of-place until you remember it's a Desplechin film, and per usual he gives a slice of their inner complexities without making them important for the core of the film. Desplechin cannot help but gracefully wander over to the corners of his characters' lives and peer into their thoughts or idiosyncratic tendencies, like a magnet of curiosity, but without the interest in exerting analyses, which makes these instances feel out of place given how films normally operate. The attention to God in the voiceover is key to the idea of accepting enigmas, such as Zem's abilities, or the nebulous space between the two women that is like a murky soup of love and powerplay self-focused, fear-based manipulations. In Desplechin's films a character is never simplified, so apparent sociopaths have empathy, however limited, and a Christ-like figure even has a deep history that he psychologically compartmentalizes to stay focused on an ethical path.

These rare mysterious characters do pop up in his work. Ivan in A Christmas Tale comes to mind, who doesn't seem to care about his wife's infidelity or most conflict that would lead a normal person to emotional-based reactiveness (he oddly looks like he expected it in a key scene). I'd have to go back to dig into other examples, but there is an element to his character that feels so self-actualized it's unreal; exuding alien calmness and yet he is still a human being with unknowable psychology lurking underneath, kept 'simple' on the surface but (I, and I think Desplechin, expects) just as complex as every other character behind the curtain.

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Re: Arnaud Desplechin

#89 Post by domino harvey » Sun May 17, 2020 4:22 pm

he has imperfections and blind spots, a key detail being that he does not recall what led a family member dearest to him to resent him so intensely
I forgot about the prison scene where the film refuses to explain what caused the rift, but it’s definitely peak Desplechin: character context sans context!

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Re: Arnaud Desplechin

#90 Post by NABOB OF NOWHERE » Wed May 20, 2020 11:37 am

therewillbeblus wrote:
Sun May 17, 2020 4:15 pm
A Christmas Tale[/b] comes to mind, who doesn't seem to care about his wife's infidelity or most conflict that would lead a normal person to emotional-based reactiveness (he oddly looks like he expected it in a key scene). I'd have to go back to dig into other examples, but there is an element to his character that feels so self-actualized it's unreal; exuding alien calmness and yet he is still a human being with unknowable psychology lurking underneath, kept 'simple' on the surface but (I, and I think Desplechin, expects) just as complex as every other character behind the curtain.
I think you will find in your digging other examples where Desplechin creates situations where your normal expectations of behaviour are rendered utterly redundant without him resorting to a stylised or formally strategic conceit of contradiction but to use a Godardian phrase 'dans la justesse' - totally immersive in its appropriateness. That build to a melodramatic outburst is so often either totally out of context or sublimated in a way where the moral imperative of action or reaction is shattered by a contrary spontaneous emotional release. In the example of Ivan having seen his wife nonchalantly displaying her adultery his look is one of benediction. Her act seen as pure and generous even if it is not the case. In the example of the interrogation scene in Roubaix the breakdown and confession is not provoked through threat or physical violence (still quite commonplace in French policiers) but again the rupture of the drive to protect the loved one is driven by the placidity and empathy of the detectives.

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Re: Arnaud Desplechin

#91 Post by therewillbeblus » Wed May 20, 2020 12:13 pm

What a terrific perspective on this, Nabob! I agree with your thoughts on Desplechin's eccentric path to authentic 'emotional release' but linking these "mysterious" characters together as normalized and akin to the others is spot on, focusing on their similarities rather than differences, in an already unique vision of the world.


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Re: Arnaud Desplechin

#93 Post by therewillbeblus » Sun Dec 13, 2020 11:08 pm

I watched Comment je me suis disputé... (ma vie sexuelle) again for the third time this year, and there's always new information to discover- but I was particularly taken by the running gags of Philosophy of Logic professors engaging in totally illogical conversations and nonsensical deductive reasoning. Sometimes these are revealed in later scenes (i.e. Paul and Bob as carbon-copies of each other, following an earlier scene where Bob 'logically' can't break up with his girlfriend because it will somehow be suspicious for Paul's plans), or other times in-the-moment proofs for what rings symbolize or how to respond to a snub, but even these revelations or arguments hold no real weight other than internal logic in-jokes the audience isn't privy to.. yet it's so fitting with Descplechin's messy cocktail of a worldview that the irony mirrors as stark truth. The priest believing in a specific faith in "my own way" may be the most on-the-nose example, but through these humorous, absurd assertions are threads of sincere desires to find meaning, using all the tools available to make sense of life. In the end Paul gets that via a nice statement about how we change and are changed by others, and even if he runs away with the notion into fantastical lengths of declaring it the definitive proof of existential merit, what matters is that at least subjectively his life is "not all for naught."

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Re: Arnaud Desplechin

#94 Post by Aunt Peg » Mon Dec 14, 2020 10:12 pm

Never Cursed wrote:
Fri Jan 17, 2020 1:25 am
Trailer for Oh, Mercy! which indicates that it will be released in Australia through Madman Films
And sadly that release was limited to screenings of the French Film Festival in March (which was halted due to COVID), resumed in July (when I saw it) and then film went straight to streaming. Does anybody know of an English friendly physical media release anywhere.

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Re: Arnaud Desplechin

#95 Post by therewillbeblus » Wed Dec 16, 2020 3:55 pm

Both Fox Lorber DVDs of My Sex Life and Esther Kahn are suddenly listed on Amazon for >$20 individually- are these resurfacing from OOP status, or is this not the set that's been going for insane amounts of money the last few years?

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Re: Arnaud Desplechin

#96 Post by domino harvey » Wed Dec 16, 2020 4:11 pm

Reminder that the American Esther Kahn DVD is a shorter cut

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Re: Arnaud Desplechin

#97 Post by therewillbeblus » Wed Dec 16, 2020 4:18 pm

domino harvey wrote:
Wed Dec 16, 2020 4:11 pm
Reminder that the American Esther Kahn DVD is a shorter cut
Thanks, I forgot. I thought I had seen the R1 DVD of My Sex Life going for insane prices before too, but I may have just been thinking of the OOP two-film package

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Re: Arnaud Desplechin

#98 Post by criterionsnob » Thu Jun 17, 2021 8:10 pm

Roubaix, une lumière is now available to stream on Crave in Canada (with Super Écran add on), BUT with French subtitles only. I’ve been waiting for this forever and am going to give it a try.

It doesn’t seem to be available anywhere with English subtitles unless I’m missing something?

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Aunt Peg
Joined: Fri Dec 21, 2012 5:30 am

Re: Arnaud Desplechin

#99 Post by Aunt Peg » Fri Jun 18, 2021 1:28 am

criterionsnob wrote:
Thu Jun 17, 2021 8:10 pm
Roubaix, une lumière is now available to stream on Crave in Canada (with Super Écran add on), BUT with French subtitles only. I’ve been waiting for this forever and am going to give it a try.

It doesn’t seem to be available anywhere with English subtitles unless I’m missing something?
It's available in Australia with English subtitles for streaming but not on physical media ](*,)

https://www.fetchtv.com.au/movie/details/2194027 It probably cannot be accessed outside of Australia though.

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criterionsnob
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 1:23 am
Location: Canada

Re: Arnaud Desplechin

#100 Post by criterionsnob » Fri Jun 18, 2021 10:57 am

I watched the whole thing with French subtitles and surprisingly my grade 12 French holds up well after nearly 30 years. It was easy to understand, although I appreciated reading the forum comments above after finishing to fill in some things I missed. Too bad this film was poorly received by many, and may never get a North American release with English subs.

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