Every Minute, Four Ideas: The Films of Arnaud Desplechin

Comprehensive Retrospective of Acclaimed French Auteur Precedes Opening of His Latest, A Christmas Tale

“Every Minute, Four Ideas: The Films of Arnaud Desplechin,” a comprehensive retrospective of one of France’s most exciting contemporary filmmakers, screens Wednesday, November 5-Thursday, November 13 at IFC Center. The series includes all of Desplechin’s acclaimed fiction features—LA SENTINELLE (1992), the breakthrough MY SEX LIFE… OR HOW I GOT INTO AN ARGUMENT (1996), with Mathieu Almaric, Jeanne Balibar and Emmanuelle Devos, the English-language ESTHER KAHN, starring Rain Phoenix, and his hit KINGS AND QUEEN (2004). Also screened are the rarely-shown L’AIMÉE (2007), an exploration of family and memory that was named best documentary at the Venice Film Festival, and the early featurette LA VIE DES MORTS (1991), winner of the Prix Jean Vigo.

Presented in anticipation of the November 14 opening of the filmmaker’s newest feature, the Cannes and New York Film Festival hit A CHRISTMAS TALE, IFC Center’s series follows on the heels of a Los Angeles retrospective, “Full of Life: Arnaud Desplechin,” co-presented by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the AFI Festival from October 31 to November 7.

Arnaud Desplechin was born in 1960 in Roubaix in the north of France, near the Belgian border. He studied filmmaking at the University of Paris, graduating in 1984. From his first films in the early 1990s, he established himself as one of the great voices of contemporary filmmaking: a fearless, joyous auteur whose risky, exhilarating movies defy expectation at every turn. Working in a wide variety of genres (sometimes within the same film, or even the same scene), he marshals a dizzying array of references, from classical philosophy to Hollywood hokum, to create a cinema that mirrors the complexity and unruliness of life itself. While making 2004’s KINGS AND QUEEN, he taped François Truffaut’s maxim “Every minute, four ideas” to his wall for inspiration. Looking back at his body of work, it’s clear that’s been his guiding principle all along.

"The least predictable and most interesting of younger French directors, Arnaud Desplechin may also be the most film-intoxicated… Desplechin’s movies are remarkably generous." - J. Hoberman, Village Voice

Every Minute, Four Ideas:

The Films of Arnaud Desplechin

Wednesday, November 5-

Thursday, November 13 at IFC Center

Wednesday-Thursday, November 5-6

L’AIMEE (2007) with La Vie des Morts (1991) 2:00, 4:30, 7:00, 9:30

In L’AIMEE, as Desplechin’s father prepares to sell a home, the filmmaker explores the power of family legends and memories. LA VIE DES MORTS, with Emmanuelle Devos, Marianne Denicourt, Thibault de Montalembert and other Desplechin regulars, centers upon an extended family that comes together after one of their group attempts suicide.

Friday, November 7

KINGS AND QUEEN (2004) 3:00, 6:00, 9:00

The lives of two former lovers, Nora and Ismaël, are disrupted by unexpected crises. With Mathieu Almaric (Winner, César Award for Best Actor), Emmanuelle Devos and Catherine Deneuve. Winner, Prix Louis Delluc.

Saturday, November 8

MY SEX LIFE… OR HOW I GOT INTO AN ARGUMENT (1996) 1:30, 5:00, 8:30

A longtime graduate student (Mathieu Almaric, who won the César for Best New Actor) finds himself entangled with several women while he contemplates abandoning academia. With Emmanuelle Devos, Jeanne Balibar, Chiara Mastroianni.

Sunday, November 9

MY SEX LIFE… OR HOW I GOT INTO AN ARGUMENT 1:30

KINGS AND QUEEN 5:00, 8:00

Monday, November 10

LA SENTINELLE (1992) 1:00, 4:00, 9:45

A medical student (Emmanuel Salinger, who won the César for Best New Actor) traveling to Paris discovers a shrunken human head has been stashed in his suitcase and begins an investigation. With Marianne Denicourt, Bruno Todeschini, Emmanuelle Devos