- Born
- Arnaud Desplechin was born on October 31, 1960 in Roubaix, Nord, France. He is a director and writer, known for Kings & Queen (2004), The Sentinel (1992) and La vie des morts (1991).
- RelativesMarie Desplechin(Sibling)Fabrice Desplechin(Sibling)Raphaëlle Desplechin(Sibling)
- Ancient student of L'Idhec.
- Brother of Fabrice Desplechin.
- Brother of writer Marie Desplechin.
- He began as cameraman for a friend, Eric Rochant, on the shooting of a short-film, "Comme les doigts de la main" ("Like hand's fingers"). Also for Rochant, he wrote the screenplay of "Un monde sans pitié" ("A Pitiless World").
- Brother of writer Raphaëlle Desplechin.
- [on the Cannes Film Festival jury 2016] I already served on a major jury in Venice [2010], but obviously Cannes is a lot bigger than them. It was really great for me to stop the prep of my film and to see what worldwide cinema is about today, to have a picture of what film is today - all these films that come from many countries - and to see them. The experience of seeing the films and to discuss them... it was fascinating. It was really fascinating. I learned a lot from George Miller. He's so great; he's a master. I was so happy to meet László Nemes at last, when I loved his film so much. If I had to say one thing that I learned from this experience, it would be the fact that the two main prizes we gave in Cannes... one was to a certain form of nakedness, of simplicity, which is the Ken Loach movie [I, Daniel Blake (2016)]. When cinema is not hiding behind anything - a naked art. On the other hand, we gave the second prize to the Xavier Dolan [ It's Only the End of the World (2016)] because of his craft, because the film is so well-done, so impressive - the way it's shot, the way it's lit, the sets, everything. The art is so brilliant. So we gave one award to nakedness and the other one to the pure craft and obvious talent of Xavier Dolan. It was wonderful to give these two prizes to two films which are so surprising in two different perspectives within cinema. Ask cinema to be simple or ask it to be complex; if it breaks your heart, it's good. The film, the English film, was heartbreaking because of its simplicity, and the Xavier Dolan was heartbreaking because of its complexity, and it was great to reward these two films. [July 2016]
- [press conference for A Christmas Tale (2008) at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival] When I make films I try to see how things work. I try to reappropriate things, I try to understand how they work - I try to dissect things. And if I go to the cinema, which is basically what I do in my life - I'm a spectator more than anything - I go to the cinema to live better, to have a better life. What I see on the screen is better-arranged than in life. Everything is better, it's more interesting, it's more intense. There's always a to-and-fro motion on the surface of the screen, which doesn't really exist in reality, but that's the place where I feel good - it's a comfortable place to dwell, for understanding and reappropriating things for myself.
- [Cannes press conference for A Christmas Tale (2008)] It's something we often hear, that family is a poison and things like that. It's funny - if you take a family and if the poison gets into this family, it's interesting. If you take a regiment during the war you get a poison as well, and it makes another kind of film. When there's a drama within a family this disorganises everything and the Vuillard family is disorganised right from the beginning of the film and then you get disorder added to disorder and then right up to the end with Anne on the balcony - in a way this new disorder brings a kind of new peace. When you've got leukemia in the family, at the same time this becomes even more interesting and more embarrassing. I couldn't treat this kind of thing in a black way however. The title is great - it's a tale, something fairy-like, a fairy tale with no beginning and no end really, something which is strange with no morality, and that's the kind of thing I like.
- Fanny and Alexander (1982) is the film that's accompanied me all my life. It's a film that never stops nourishing me - both the theatrical and TV versions. The whole principle of generational stories comes from there. I watched that film and it allowed me to make films myself. No question about it. Of course, among the most beautiful Bergman films I would count Summer with Monika (1953) - which was in the corpus. Wild Strawberries (1957) is one of the most beautiful films in the world. But I have a special attachment to Fanny and Alexander, given also the age I saw it and also because I'm French and the film was a French co-production. I saw Fanny and Alexander and then I became a director. Before, I was a technician, and after that film, I became a director.
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