Film Festivals

2019 Cannes Critics’ Panel: Day 10 – Arnaud Desplechin’s Oh Mercy!

Published on May 23, 2019

After La sentinelle (1992), My Sex Life… or How I Got Into an Argument (1996), Esther Kahn (2000), A Christmas Tale (2008), Jimmy P: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian (2013), and almost coming with a double title of Oh Mercy! (Roubaix, une lumière in French), this is Arnaud Desplechin‘s sixth trip to the competition and in all his eleventh feature film. Starring Roschdy Zem, Léa Seydoux and Sara Forestier, this is a departure for the filmmaker in terms of genre and tells the Xmas tale of Roubaix the city — and Daoud, the local police chief, and Louis, a fresh recruit, are confronted with the violent murder of an elderly woman. The neighbours of the victim, two young women, Claude and Marie, are arrested.

Somewhat early Hitchock and certainly detective film (not really noir) in spirit, Desplechin goes for something new with this project which is tonally very different from anything he has made in the past.

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Eric Lavallée

Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).