‘Family is important’
Address: Arnaud Desplechin
artists: Marion Cotillard, Melvil Poupaud, Golshifteh Farahani
Premiere: February 24, 2023
★★★
Generally prone to a certain abstraction and complex structures, In his latest film, French director Arnaud Desplechin surprises by choosing a fiery melodrama to tell the story of the relationship between two brothers and sisters, Louis and Alice, who hate each other deeply. In the opening sequence, we learn that Louis’ six-year-old son has died. In the next, five years later, we witness a car accident that leaves their mother in a coma and their father in a critical condition. In less than five minutes, a major family-related break emerges. Louis and Alice haven’t seen each other for over twenty years. He is a famous theater actor. He was a teacher and writer, and he humiliated his sister in all of his novels. Desplechin does not hide: ‘Family Matters’ is a drama where we see two protagonists sink. at the same time, we agree with significant parts of their past with connotations of one and the other.
And as a borderline drama, it’s quite French in that sense, a bit impacted and empathetic.. Egos and feelings of guilt, crises of the artistic bourgeoisie, opium addiction and the search for other forms of life are simple embellishments to tell the epidermal tale of exacerbated hatred. In this way, Desplechin finds himself in that always dangerous territory between the sublime and the ridiculous.