Synopsis
Just as the disheveled and alcoholic filmmaker Ismaël embarks on a difficult new film project, his life is sent into a tailspin. His wife Carlotta, presumed dead for 20 years, come crashing back into his life creating chaos in his work and his current romantic relationship with the starry-eyed astronomer Sylvia.
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Cast
- Mathieu AmalricIsmaël Vuillard
- Marion CotillardCarlotta Bloom
- Charlotte GainsbourgSylvia
- Louis GarrelIvan Dedalus
- Alba RohrwacherArielle / Faunia
- László SzabóHenri Bloom
- Hippolyte GirardotZwy
- Jacques NolotClaverie
- Catherine MouchetLe médecin soins intensifs
- Samir GuesmiLe médecin
Recommendations
- 91
The Film Stage
Desplechin has frequently acknowledged his debt to psychoanalysis in general and Lacan specifically, but never had he dared plunge as deeply into the mysteries of the psyche as he does here. [Cannes Version] - 90
Screen Daily
Desplechin delivers with flying colours thanks to an excellent cast and a sometimes serious, sometimes funny story that never lets up or becomes predictable. [Cannes Version] - 80
The Hollywood Reporter
The use of both dialogue and film language is sophisticated; sometimes Ismael’s Ghosts borders on overripe melodrama, while at other times it relies on genre tropes but then gives them an unexpected twist. [Cannes Version] - 67
IndieWire
At its best, the movie is a freewheeling gambit, hurtling in multiple directions at once, and it’s thrilling to watch Desplechin try juggle them all. [Cannes Version] - 60
The Telegraph
Amalric transcends mere dishevelment here: in some scenes which flash back to the start of his relationship with Sylvia, the former Bond villain looks like a pile of leaves with a coat thrown on top. [Cannes Version] - 58
The Playlist
Desplechin lashes storylines and filmmaking gimmickry in to the one ginormous stewpot with gusto, slams the lid down on it and promptly forgets to turn on the heat. [Cannes Version] - 57
Paste Magazine
Did Desplechin get seduced by the problems that plague filmmakers like himself? If so, he’s done a disservice to his own work, which needed a solution to its deficiencies—not an extended reverie that merely highlights them. [Cannes Version] - 40
CineVue
It isn't that it's hard going: it simply can't decide what it wants to be. [Cannes Version]
