A Christmas Tale

A Christmas Tale is a 2008 French comedy-drama film by Arnaud Desplechin, starring Catherine Deneuve, Jean-Paul Roussillon, Mathieu Amalric, Anne Consigny, Melvil Poupaud, Emmanuelle Devos and Chiara Mastroianni. It tells the story of a family with strained relationships which gathers at the parents' home for Christmas, having just learned that their mother has leukemia. It was in competition for the Palme d'Or at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. Plot Roubaix, December 2006. Junon Vuillard, married to Abel, is the iron-willed matriarch of the family. Junon held her family together through tough times, but her willpower made her children resentful. She remains handsome, and though her husband is obese and elderly, he retains clarity, acceptance, tolerance, and unconditional love for his family. He and their mutual love holds a fragmented family together, albeit uneasily. They have three children in their 30s. Eldest is Elizabeth, a successful playwright married to the equally successful Claude. Their only child is 16-year-old Paul, mentally ill and taking powerful medication. The middle child is Henri, who drinks too much and has always fought with everyone else. He has a new girlfriend, Faunia. Ivan is the youngest sibling, married to Sylvia with two sons, Basile and Baptiste. Henri and Ivan are friends with Simon, a cousin who was raised with them after his parents' death. Simon works in Abel's plant, but is a part-time artist. He is an alcoholic, frequently in trouble for public brawling. All three men were interested in Sylvia once, but manipulated her to think that only Ivan loved her; she married and grew to love him. A deceased sibling, Joseph, is the presence around which everyone's psyches revolve: he died of leukemia when six, after his parents tried to save him by having another child who might be a bone marrow donor. Six years before the Christmas gathering on which the film focuses, Henri faced bankruptcy. Elizabeth paid off his debts, but demanded that he never see her again, meaning he had to be excluded from family gatherings. Family members speculate on the reason Elizabeth set this condition.