Interview with Arnaud Desplechin (A Christmas Tale)

French auteur Arnaud Desplechin weaves a rich tapestry of pitch perfect performances for a collection of emotionally charged sequences in his latest film which curiously unfolds like a classic novel. With the help of some of the best actors in French cinema including his frequent collaborators Catherine Deneuve, Mathieu Amalric (Kings and Queen), Emmanuelle Devos and Anne Consigny, A Christmas Tale centers on the matriarch of the family, played by the impeccable Deneuve, who discovers that her cancer will require a donor which makes her upcoming gathering for the holidays with her own dysfunctional family a bit more out of the ordinary. What Desplechin delivers is not an easy task by any means, he brings vision and bravura to every detail of the film that’s extraordinary capturing a family that feuds lovingly over past and present events. One of the more dynamic, energetic French films in recent years, this concretulizes Desplechin as one of the more unique visions and voices in French cinema.

Arnaud Desplechin

Yama Rahimi: It’s a great accomplishment to have such a rich and complex story with so many well developed characters. What inspired to write this story and what was the biggest challenge?
Arnaud Desplechin: I follow intuitive paths and wanted to make a Thanksgiving film which we don’t have. So that was the initial idea. This kind of films usually don’t have a good tracking record as far as nobility is concerned. I usually don’t like films where you have to wait 50 minutes for the characters confess something that the audience already knows. For example the son tells his mother after an hour that he’s gay and the mother says I never liked you, then you have twelve minutes or so and the films ends. I don’t like the idea that revelation would be a great narrative point. So I like these films where people tell about their long held emotions; which is the boiling point. So it’s fun for the screen writers to write these main scenes but sometime these become boring for the audience. So I wanted for my film all the revelations in the first scenes when we see the characters, so the audience know where the characters are. So the challenge was how to structure the narrative without the scenes of revelations.

YR: I loved and appreciated the emotional honesty of the characters which seemed refreshing. During the writing process, how much do you pay attention to potential casting since you have several actors in this film that you worked with previously like Catherine Deneuve, Mathieu Amalric and Emmanuelle Devos?
AD: I never, never write for any particular actors because the writing process so long that you do everything with characters. I mean everything. I’m not clever so I put a chart and try every possible journey for each character that’s filled with what ifs. So if I write for a particular actor, I would be bored when it comes to the production. So we considered every actress for the role Junon until we cast Catherine Deneuve.

YR: You have some of the biggest names of French cinema in this film, was it difficult to schedule them?
AD: Not really. I know most of actors, so I’m not offended if an actor is not available or has a better role. For example, I wasn’t sure that Emmanuelle would be in my film because she had another project that had a bigger role for her. But as it happens here, some films don’t happen and that film didn’t happen and she became available again. She called me and I told her that I haven’t cast that role yet and would love her to come onboard.

YR: The cast had an amazing chemistry. How much do you rehearse?
AD: I don’t rehearse. I mean rehearse on the script but I work with each actor separately. So each actor knows what his/her character is about, so when shoot the other actors don’t know it, so it becomes our secret. No one is allowed to talk about what we talked about with other actors. So it brings more energy to the story and actors.

YR: I was amazed by the tools you used to tell the story like the shadow play or the old photographs. It helps and the audience never gets lost despite so many characters.
AD: Well every family has a myth whether it’s true or not but the characters believe in it, so the shadow play was a way to bring the myth into the story.

YR: I also loved how the dead baby became a character which was still affecting the whole family dynamics after forty years or so.
AD: Like a nice little ghost over the whole film.

YR: Tell us about your Cannes and post Cannes experience. Why is Cannes important for you?
AD: Well I had my first film in Cannes but it wasn’t in the official competition, then my second film La Sentinelle was, so for me it was normal without thinking much about. The third time around it was weird to have my film in Cannes because there wasn’t anything spectacular about it. After the fourth I was very grateful to Gilles Jacob because without the exposure, I don’t think films would have been shown around the world. Beyond that Cannes is brutal. It’s worse for French directors. People and critics are mean but you can’t complain because it’s a window of opportunity for your film. You have to play the rules. I don’t think I ever won any awards except for the actors. Every year they show the state of cinema whether it’s good or bad. Cannes is like a play where you have the hero, the villain and the fool, so they cast accordingly.

YR: What other filmmakers inspires you?
AD: Well I grew up with American and Japanese Cinema but Bergman and Truffaut were a revelation to me. They are the best storytellers for me.

YR: What was the biggest challenge on this film?
AD: Whether to be cheesy or mean once you decide to make a “Thanksgiving” or feel good movie. To have the right balance and not making it a religious film because it’s set during Christmas. So I didn’t want to bring to many Christian elements and stereotypes to it like angels, redemption and all those cliches that can be cheesy. I never think being mean is a solution either. To say this person is just mean for no reason. The idea is to make it interesting without falling in the stereotypes.

IFC Films opens A Christmas Tale in theaters on November 14th.

[Note: This interview was originally published during the French Cinema Now Festival.]