Arnaud Desplechin

Energetic, comic, and attentive to the possibilities of cinema and of life, Arnaud Desplechin's films demonstrate the enduring relevance of François Truffaut's dictum, "Every shot, four ideas." Room 2 is an invitation to explore Desplechin's influences, method, and imaginative transformations of scripts, texts, and poetic references. Desplechin's cinematic approach is the focus of Room 3, which proceeds sequentially from painting and visual perspective, to cinematic treatments of face-to-face encounters, to layers of theatrical play, and then finally to the melding of space, myth, and performance. As with Desplechin's films, each section builds upon and responds to the ones that preceded it. Photograph by Gus Aronson (Paris, November 2021)

Arnaud Desplechin Portrait Film

Cinematic Quotations

One of the signature moments of Desplechin's cinema is the musical recitation of Charles Baudelaire's "The Voyage" (1857) in La Vie des morts (The Life of the Dead, 1991). Desplechin's use of poetic citations invites comparisons with the work of Jean-Luc Godard, who write a letter expressing his admiration for the film.

Desplechin's Method

Annotations for the screenplay of My Sex Life... or How I Got Into an Argument (Arnaud Desplechin, 1996, Courtesy Arnaud Desplechin)

The Invention of Perspective

The Annunciation (Fra Angelico, 1437-1445, Convent of San Marco, Florence) is one of the key works of the Italian Renaissance. A signature scene in Ismael's Ghosts (2017) compares this model of perspective with the contemporaneous one developed by Jan Van Eyck.

Face-to-Face

In its use of music and its emphasis on exchange, this section of Ismael's Ghosts (Arnaud Desplechin, 2017) is emblematic of the director's deeper exploration of the importance of "seeing face-to-face."

If We Shadows Have Offended

This scene from Jimmy P: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian (Arnaud Desplechin, 2013) is one of many reflections on theater (from Shakespeare to Ibsen) in Desplechin's cinema.

Intimate Journeys

In My Golden Days (2015), Desplechin draws all of the motifs in his films together, connecting geographically specific memories, layered references, interlocking plots, and fictional journeys.