The town of Roubaix in France, located near the Belgian border, is rather like the Detroit of France. Yesterday’s city of industry has become a broken shell of a town. In the film's opening as local police chief Inspector Daoud (Roschdy Zem) cruises by a burning car he calls it in, the fire foreshadowing tragedy. Daoud is a fictional character who was added in by director Arnaud Desplechin. His ... more >
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Desplechin’s underwhelming “Ismael’s Ghosts” opens up CANNES FILM FESTIVAL
A messy film
Charlotte Gainsbourg, Marion Cotillard and Mathieu Amalric
Directed by Arnaud Desplechins
I was disappointed that “Ismael’s Ghosts” hadn't turned out to be the near-perfect film that “My Golden Days,” which screened at the Cannes Festival last year, was. Arnaud Desplechin’s new film, which opened this year's festival (Cannes celebrates seventy this year) is sketchy and brutal, chaotic and annoyingly camp. On the good side the characters speak impressive, theatrical-like lines, like in ... more >
Jimmy P. (Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian)
Freudian therapy is alive and well
Mathieu Amalric and Benicio del Toro
Directed by Arnaud Desplechin
Right after World War II Jimmy Picard (Benicio Del Toro), a Blackfoot Indian who fought in France, is admitted to a military hospital in Topeka, Kansas. The institution is specialized in brain diseases and Jimmy Picard suffers from many problems : dizziness, temporary blindness, and hearing loss (a case of post-traumatic stress disorder?). In the absence of physiological causes, he’s given a ... more >
Benicio Del Toro attached to Desplechin movie
It'll be his first time appearing in a French production
Actor Benicio Del Toro has been attached to appear in Jimmy Picard, an upcoming film by French filmmaker Arnaud Desplechin (A Christmas Tale). Jimmy Picard is the adaptation of "Reality and Dream: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian" by the anthropologist George Devereux. Picard, played by Del Toro, is an Indian from the Blackfoot tribe who suffers from neuroses and alcoholism after fighting in World ... more >