If you can count on death and taxes, you can also count on French filmmaker Arnaud Desplechin having a new film at the Cannes Film Festival. Desplechin has had ten films play at Cannes either in competition or in other sections, his most recent being 2021’s “Deception” and 2019’s “Oh Mercy.” His latest, “Brother And Sister” (“Frère et Sœur”) stars Marion Cotillard and Melvil Poupaud as estranged siblings who are forced to reunite after 20 years following the death of their parents. It’s been decades of silence between them, but grief, love, and pain bring them back together. This one is definitely playing in competition on the Croisette.
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Co-starring Golshifteh Farahani, Benjamin Siksou, Patrick Timsit, Abel Joël Cudennec, Cosmina Stratan, Francis Leplay, Max Baissette de Malglaive, Nicolette Picheral, Clément Hervieu-Léger, and Alexandre Pavloff, the film was co-written by Desplechin, Julie Peyr and Naïla Guiguet. Here’s the official synopsis from Wild Bunch France.
Alice and Louis are brother and sister. She is an actress; he was a teacher and poet. For more than 20 years, Alice has hated her brother. In all this time they haven’t seen one another. Then their parents are involved in a serious accident, and the siblings are brought face to face…
The director of photography on the film is Irina Lubtchansky who works on nearly all of Desplechin’s productions including films like 2017’s “Ismael’s Ghosts” and 2015’s “My Golden Days.” Lubtchansky’s been nominated twice for Best Cinematography at the César Awards in France, both for Desplechin films, the aforementioned “Oh Mercy” and “My Golden Days.” “Brother And Sister” marks Desplechin’s seventh time in competition at Cannes, so yes, the organizers there truly love his voice. “Brother and Sister” has a release day of May 20 in France and we’ll know of a U.S. date once a distributor comes on board after the festival. Watch the first trailer below.