A Christmas Tale

In Arnaud Desplechin’s beguiling A Christmas Tale (Un conte de Noël), Catherine Deneuve brings her legendary poise to the role of Junon, matriarch of the troubled Vuillard family, who come together at Christmas after she learns she needs a bone marrow transplant from a blood relative. That simple family reunion setup, however, can’t begin to describe the unpredictable, emotionally volatile experience of this film, an inventive, magical drama that’s equal parts merriment and melancholy. Unrequited childhood loves and blinding grudges, brutal outbursts and sudden slapstick, music, movies, and poetry, A Christmas Tale ties it all together in a marvelously messy package.

France
2008
152 minutes
Color
2.35:1
French
Spine #492

Special Features

DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised by director Arnaud Desplechin, with DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
L’aimée, Desplechin’s 2007 documentary about the selling of his family home
Arnaud's Tale, a new 35-minute documentary featuring interviews with Desplechin and actors Mathieu Amalric and Catherine Deneuve
Original theatrical trailers
New and improved English subtitle translation
PLUS: A new essay by critic Philip Lopate

New cover by Rodrigo Corral

Blu‑ray 1 Disc $31.96 SRP: $39.95

DVD 2 Discs $31.96 SRP: $39.95

DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised by director Arnaud Desplechin, with DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
L’aimée, Desplechin’s 2007 documentary about the selling of his family home
Arnaud's Tale, a new 35-minute documentary featuring interviews with Desplechin and actors Mathieu Amalric and Catherine Deneuve
Original theatrical trailers
New and improved English subtitle translation
PLUS: A new essay by critic Philip Lopate

New cover by Rodrigo Corral

Cast & Credits

Cast

Catherine Deneuve: Junon
Jean-Paul Roussillon: Abel
Mathieu Amalric: Henri
Anne Consigny: Elizabeth
Melvil Poupaud: Ivan
Emmanuelle Devos: Faunia
Chiara Mastroianni: Sylvia
Emile Berling: Paul
Hippolyte Girardot: Claude
Laurent Capelluto: Simon

Credits

Director: Arnaud Desplechin
Screenplay: Arnaud Desplechin
Screenplay: Emmanuel Bourdieu
Producer: Pascal Caucheteux
Cinematography: Eric Gautier
Editing: Laurence Briaud
Music: Grégoire Hetzel
Production design: Dan Bevan

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Explore

Catherine Deneuve

Actor

One of cinema’s great beauties, Catherine Deneuve (born Catherine Dorléac in Paris in 1943) is also an icon of the transformative cinematic 1960s. The daughter of two actors and the sister of three (one of whom, Françoise Dorléac, died in a car crash in 1967), Deneuve has acting in her blood. After her major breakthrough in Jacques Demy’s poignant 1964 musical The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Deneuve continued to prove she was more than just a pretty face in Roman Polanski’s thriller Repulsion and Luis Buñuel’s surreal erotic daydream Belle de jour. Those films may exploit Deneuve’s crystalline loveliness for its seeming inscrutability, but her portrayals of sexual repression in both (and her shocking embodiment of schizophrenia in the former) make for two of the most vivid performances of the era. Those roles set her on the path to becoming a full-fledged movie star, and she went on to act for François Truffaut, Alain Cavalier, Marco Ferreri, and Jean-Pierre Melville. Her performances have grown richer as she’s aged; today, she is a true grand dame of the cinema, and her compellingly enigmatic looks—once interpreted as fragile—have taken on a mature imperiousness, as evidenced in such films as Arnaud Desplechin’s A Christmas Tale (in which she costars with her daughter with Marcello Mastroianni, Chiara Mastroianni).