The 2008 drama “A Christmas Tale” from IFC Films was directed by Arnaud Desplechin with the screenplay written by Emmanuel Bourdieu. Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Jean-Paul Roussillon, Anne Consigny, Mathieu Amalric, Melvil Poupaud, Hippolyte Girardot, Emmanuelle Devos, Chiara Mastroianni, Laurent Capelluto, Emile Berling, Thomas Obled, Clément Obled, Françoise Bertin, Samir Guesmi and Azize Kabouche.
Every time the Vuillard family gets together, it is sure to be an entertaining and un predictable occasion. Junon (Catherine Deneuve) and Abel (Jean-Paul Roussillon) have been married for more than twenty years and have three grown children who have never failed to surprise them. First there is Elizabeth (Anne Consigny), an eternally forlorn playwright who is married to Claude (Hippolyte Girardot) a mathematician and has one emotionally conflicted teenage son, Paul (Emile Berling). Henri (Mathieu Amalric), the eccentric outsider, who has been banned from family events because of his self-destructive behavior for seven years and the youngest son, Ivan (Melvil Poupaud), who has always been the diplomat of the family and who is married to the lovely Sylvia (Chiara Mastroianni) and has two precocious little boys. Junon and Abel lost there first born Joseph to leukemia as a boy.
As the holiday season approaches, Junon learns that she is now stricken with the disease and must have an immediate bone marrow transplant in order to survive. This sets off a series of tests of each member of the family to see who could be a suitable donor and this includes the melancholy cousin Simon (Laurent Capelluto) along with Henri’s girlfriend, Faunia (Emmanuelle Devos) who join the family at home for the festive Christmas weekend. Yet one by one, as the test results begin to be reported to everyone’s surprise it is Henri who is the most suitable to be the donor for Junon.
With everyone together under the same roof once again, the closeness brings out all of the familiar hilariously antics that quickly evolve into disagreements, drunkenness and swapping partners as everyone is left to their own devices to unravel the mysteries of family, life, and the future. With all of the chaos swirling through the house and the choice of whether to accept Henri as her donor, Junon faces several decisions that are becoming more complicated with the domestic bickering and hurt feelings from events of the past.
With everyone together under the same roof once again, the closeness brings out all of the familiar hilariously antics that quickly evolve into disagreements, drunkenness and swapping partners as everyone is left to their own devices to unravel the mysteries of family, life, and the future. With all of the chaos swirling through the house and the choice of whether to accept Henri as her donor, Junon faces several decisions that are becoming more complicated with the domestic bickering and hurt feelings from events of the past.
