A Christmas Tale

Paul Dedalus is at a crossroads in his life. He has to make several decisions; should he complete his doctorate, does he want to become a full professor, does he really love his long-standing girlfriend, or should he re-start with one of his other lovers?

Paul is preparing to leave Tajikistan, while thinking back on his adolescent years. His childhood, his mother's madness, the parties, the trip to the USSR where he lost his virginity, the friend who betrayed him and the love of his life.

What does it mean, to go to the movies? Why have people been going for over one hundred years? I set out to celebrate movie theaters and their manifold magic. So I walked in the footsteps of young Paul Dédalus, as if in a filmgoer’s coming-of-age story. Memories, fiction, discoveries come together in an irrepressible torrent of pictures.

Paris, autumn 2015. In Philippe Dayan's analysis office, a surgeon in disarray in love, a couple in crisis, a suicidal teenager follow one another day after day. On a November evening, killers enter Paris.

A troupe of actors rehearse a play. In the play-within-the-film, an ambitious son and his distant father fight for control of an armaments firm and are pushed to eventual destruction by dangerous outside forces and traitorous aides.

New York, 1985. Against the backdrop of AIDS - divine punishment inflicted on gays according to puritan America -, angels, who epilogue on the emptiness of the American dream, cross paths with the ghost of the spy Ethel Rosenberg, separating lovers and destitute patients. Prior, suffering from the AIDS virus, loves Louis who is about to leave him. Roy Cohn, man of power, Jewish and homosexual lawyer, anti-Semite and homophobe, lives in denial of his HIV status. Harper takes refuge in drugs to soften her married life with Joe, whose uncertain sexuality clashes with well-established religious beliefs. Following the cancellation of "Angels in America"performances ​​due to the health crisis of 2020, the project became a TV movie: "Angels - Salle Escande" is shot in the privacy of rehearsals.

25 year-old Hippo doesn't have a job, doesn't study either but lives from the money his younger brother earns with dealing and from occasional Poker winnings.

In Paris, a university student attempts to lead a double life - in love with her French boyfriend Pascal, and staying true to her Algerian family, particular her strict, traditional father. In Algiers, her cousin Yacine leads a parallel life, preparing to leave his girlfriend to move to Paris.

Shortly before her wedding, art gallery director Nora travels from Paris to Grenoble to visit her preteen son, Elias, who is spending time with her aging professor father, Louis, recently diagnosed with terminal cancer. During her stay, she reaches out to her former lover, Ismaël, a viola player and father figure to Elias who has been committed against his will to a mental hospital. Ismaël, however, has his own problems to sort out.

Paul is preparing to leave Tajikistan, while thinking back on his adolescent years. His childhood, his mother's madness, the parties, the trip to the USSR where he lost his virginity, the friend who betrayed him and the love of his life.

A medical intern finds himself drawn into a world of international intrigue after discovering a shrunken human head in his luggage.

Paul Dedalus is at a crossroads in his life. He has to make several decisions; should he complete his doctorate, does he want to become a full professor, does he really love his long-standing girlfriend, or should he re-start with one of his other lovers?

A young woman convenes with her extended family in a provincial village where her cousin, in a coma, is hospitalized after attempting suicide.

A police chief in northern France tries to solve a case where an old woman was brutally murdered on Christmas Eve. However, in a neighborhood rife with crime, everyone seems to be a suspect.

At the end of WWII, Jimmy Picard, a Native American Blackfoot who fought in France, suffers from unexplainable symptoms and is admitted to a military hospital. When doctors suspect schizophrenia, an eccentric psychoanalyst takes up the case and starts a conversation with the veteran.

Diane is a devoted friend and caretaker, particularly to her drug-addicted son. But as those around her begin to drift away in the last quarter of her life, she is left to reckon with past choices and long-dormant memories.

The Forest is both a vibrantly spontaneous and brutally funny family drama, and a glorious tribute to acting and theater - in other words, an Arnaud Desplechin film. With Michel Vuillermoz and Denis Podalydès as the nephew and his friend, Adeline D’Hermy as the niece, and Martine Chevallier in a stunning performance as the sublimely selfish aunt Raissa.

A Jewish girl in 19th century London dreams of becoming a stage actress.

What does it mean, to go to the movies? Why have people been going for over one hundred years? I set out to celebrate movie theaters and their manifold magic. So I walked in the footsteps of young Paul Dédalus, as if in a filmgoer’s coming-of-age story. Memories, fiction, discoveries come together in an irrepressible torrent of pictures.