Arnaud Desplechin

[Never Cursed]

Desplechin's next film, titled An Affair and featuring François Civil, Nadia Tereszkiewicz, Hippolyte Girardot, and Charlotte Rampling, is now in post-production, presumably with the intention of taking it to Cannes

[domino harvey]

Civil is a great fit for Desplechin, I can't wait to see them together

[Matt]

Complete films Blu-ray box set
No English subs

[criterionsnob]

Wow! I never thought I'd see the day. I'm almost tempted, as I can nearly get by with just French subtitles. Not ideal, but if these are never going to come out in English friendly Blu-rays, I might as well pick this up. Still, where is Radiance or Criterion to give us at least the first five or six films in a box?

[Omensetter]

My heart leapt so high, and crashed so hard in a span of seconds. Maybe Eclipse could save the day for at least everything through Kings & Queen? At the moment, I'm tempted to preorder for Esther Kahn, the one that means the most to me, and the one in English, but I suppose that'd be a bad financial decision especially given that of course I'd pay for his other features if they came out in English-friendly editions down the line.

[criterionsnob]

Now with artwork. So cute, I must own. Subs be damned.

[criterionsnob]

Desplechin's latest film Deux pianos has been added to this box.

[criterionsnob]

Well, I took a big gamble ordering the French Desplechin box, which I just received. I’ve had a cursory look at all the discs and there is good and bad news.

The good news. Picture quality of the films is fantastic, especially the early films that we’ve been pining for. I noticed many 4K restoration head credits. The exception for video quality is Léo, en jouant "Dans la compagnie des hommes" which looks like an old video source. I'm guessing it was originally completed on video, or there is just no restoration available.

The bad news. Only about half of the films in the set have French SDH subs, which I was relying on since I'm not fluent. The others have no subs whatsoever. Esther Kahn and Jimmy P. have English audio, but forced French subtitles.

So, here’s a rundown of the subtitles situation:

NO SUBS WHATSOEVER:
La vie des morts (1991)

La sentinelle (1992)

Comment je me suis disputé... (ma vie sexuelle) (1996)
Léo, en jouant "Dans la compagnie des hommes" (2004)
Rois et reine (2004)

Un conte de Noêl (2008)
Les fantômes d'Ismaël (2017)


FRENCH SDH SUBS:
Trois souvenirs de ma jeunesse (2015)

Roubaix, une lumière (2019)

Tromperie (2021)

Frère et soeur (2022)
Spectateurs! (2024)

ENGLISH AUDIO, FORCED FRENCH SUBS:
Esther Kahn (2000)
Jimmy P. (2013)

UNKNOWN:
Deux pianos (2025)
They included an empty case for his latest film and a slip of paper saying it’s not available until February 2026. I have to mail the slip with my address and it will be sent out separately. Subtitle situation currently unknown.

The box itself is absolutely beautifully put together. Slim digipacks for each film, a small book (French only), a sheet of Desplechin stickers (!!), and six postcards.

So, ultimately, I’ve bought a very expensive set and I’ll only be able to watch and enjoy about half of the films. Here’s hoping these beautiful 4K restorations of the early films see the light of day soon with English subs. Of course, I will buy that in a heartbeat.

[Matt]

Thanks for taking the hit for us. I would also be relying on SDH, so I'm sad to see so many films without them. And given the patchwork of rights holders outside of France, I don't have any hope that this will see an English-friendly version.

[criterionsnob]

I always forget how to post my own photos on here, but here are a few pictures.

[Never Cursed]

Here's a weird bit of news: the Saudi producers of Woody Allen's next movie have also announced that they will fund Desplechin's next, The Thing That Hurts. Ruimy has thrown around the names of cast (Lea Seydoux, Jason Schwartzman, Alfre Woodard, Felicity Jones, John Turturro, Golshifteh Farahani) and producers (Wes Anderson) that are supposedly in the process of being confirmed for the movie, but the Deadline article uses much less certain language.

[domino harvey]

Wow I fucking love that cast, I hope it’s accurate. Nice to see Anderson return the favor, Desplechin is a big Tenenbaums fan (as you’d expect)

[Never Cursed]

My understanding was the feeling is mutual, as Kings and Queen is one of Anderson's favorite movies of all time (it even made his Sight and Sound submission) and my suspicion is that he first cast Amalric (as the French voice actor for Clooney's character in Fantastic Mr. Fox) because of it

EDIT: Amalric said in an interview that Nicolas Saada, one of the screenwriters on Playing 'In the Company of Men', introduced him to Anderson

[domino harvey]

Felicity Jones and Jason Schwartzman just played a couple in that Michelle Pfeiffer Christmas movie too, maybe Desplechin liked that one as well!

[martin]

The French blu-ray box set is a bit cheaper at amazon.es at the moment (€131 vs 150 at dot fr) although I don't know how shipping, taxes etc. adds up.

[criterionsnob]

UNKNOWN:
Deux pianos (2025)
They included an empty case for his latest film and a slip of paper saying it’s not available until February 2026. I have to mail the slip with my address and it will be sent out separately. Subtitle situation currently unknown.

Happy to report my Deux pianos Blu-ray arrived, and I confirmed there are French SDH subs on this one. Looking forward to watching!

[Never Cursed]

Deux Pianos is a lovely, bittersweet riff on a bunch of Desplechin's stated interests and previously-staged scenarios (the central premise is sort of extrapolated from one of A Christmas Tale's subplots without actually involving the same characters). François Civil and Nadia Tereszkiewicz are game (if not superior) replacements for Amalric and Emmanuelle Devos, and Charlotte Rampling steals the first half of the film as a fiery, troubled authority figure. Desplechin is one of the only directors working right now that I wish made substantially longer films, at the length of work in his heyday. Fun side characters like Hippolyte Girardot's snarky agent deserve the extra time that a half-hour or hour might have brought, and not knowing Desplechin's process any more than he described at the Q&A, I wonder if there's more of him or the other actors in the script than the film.

Also: French Letterboxd HATED this movie and is the reason why it sits at an average rating pretty close to recent films maudits like Megalopolis or Joker 2 (Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights actually has a higher average!). The "popular" reviews section is a firing squad of French users who found the movie boring, cliched, pretentious, or messy, interspersed with the odd, often American, viewer giving it a more sympathetic shake. Given that the average age of attendees at tonight's screening would be eligible for Social Security, I wonder if this is a generational thing and I'm the odd zoomer out.

Also also: not sure if this was widely reported, but they said at the end that Kino Lorber bought this, so Americans will get to see it this year without relying on backchannels or importing a blu-ray

[domino harvey]

I mean, there’s a good chance they will prob just dump it on DVD

[Never Cursed]

Oh, yeouch. Didn't know they tended to do so

[brundlefly]

Deux pianos U.S. trailer. In theaters May 1.

[Never Cursed]

Deux pianos U.S. trailer. In theaters May 1.

What a disastrous trailer! It shows way too much and is completely tonally off.

[therewillbeblus]

Desplechin is one of the only directors working right now that I wish made substantially longer films, at the length of work in his heyday.

I liked Deux Pianos, though not as much as you, and its partly due to the lack of sprawling narrative quirks that make a Desplechin film feel so uniquely alive and therefore special. Even Brother and Sister had elements straying into surprising spaces, but this one is too contained. For instance, the reveal about the child doppleganger makes narrative sense, but it's even more interesting as a left-field detail populating a man's hypervigilant perspective as he's navigating old terrain in an acutely anxious period of life. Not to say they shouldn't have gone where they did, especially since it's basically the plot, but Desplechin coming up with asides like that would be most welcome. I also wasn't crazy about François Civil as a stand-in for a role seemingly built for a more dynamic yet grounded actor like Melvil Poupaud. Charlotte Rampling continues to prove that she's an underappreciated talent (yes, she's gives accolades, but her name should be recognized like Streep's) and I enjoyed the kid's barely-realistic level of maturity and his relationship with his mother. Nadia Tereszkiewicz gets the job done, but I was really taken with Alba Gaïa Bellugi's character and would've liked to've seen more of her. Again, to your point, she and Hippolyte Girardot could've used beefier parts, though the film would have to be built freer in order to earn them. This isn't a film that'd be better if longer, it's design would need to shift dramatically.

[domino harvey]

I mean, there’s a good chance they will prob just dump it on DVD

Well, yeah

[Never Cursed]

Yikes. At least someone will sync the subs with the French box set's HD copy?

[Matt]

Honestly amazed that they're putting it on disc at all.