''Ismael's Ghosts'' () is a 2017 French

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

directed by

Arnaud Desplechin Arnaud Desplechin (; born 31 October 1960) is a French film director and screenwriter. In 2016, he won the César Award for Best Director for ''My Golden Days'' (2015). He has also written and directed the films ''The Sentinel (1992 film), The Sen ...

, starring

Mathieu Amalric Mathieu Amalric (; born 25 October 1965) is a French actor and filmmaker. He has won several César Awards and the Lumière Awards. He is best known internationally for his roles in the James Bond film '' Quantum of Solace'', in which he pla ...

Marion Cotillard Marion Cotillard (; born 30 September 1975) is a French actress who has appeared in both European and Hollywood productions. She is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Marion Cotillard, various accolades, including an Ac ...

Charlotte Gainsbourg Charlotte Lucy Gainsbourg (; born 21 July 1971) is a British and French actress and singer. She is the daughter of English actress and singer Jane Birkin and French singer Serge Gainsbourg. After making her musical debut with her father on the ...

Louis Garrel Louis Garrel (born 14 June 1983) is a French actor and filmmaker. He is best known for his starring role in ''The Dreamers (2003 film), The Dreamers'', directed by Bernardo Bertolucci.

Alba Rohrwacher Alba Caterina Rohrwacher (, ; born 27 February 1979) is an Italian-German actress. Early life Alba Rohrwacher was born in Florence to a German father and an Italian mother. From the age of 17 to 21 she studied medicine, intending to be a doctor ...

, László Szabó, and

Hippolyte Girardot Hippolyte Girardot (born Frédéric Girardot; 10 October 1955) is a French actor, film director and screenwriter. He is the father of actress Ana Girardot. Selected filmography * 1973: '' La Femme de Jean'', directed by Yannick Bellon, Rémi * ...

. The film follows a filmmaker whose life is sent into a tailspin, just as he is about to start shooting a new film, by the return of his wife, who disappeared 20 years ago and whom he thought dead. ''Ismael's Ghosts'' premiered at the

2017 Cannes Film Festival The 70th Cannes Film Festival took place from 17 to 28 May 2017, in Cannes, France. Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar was the president of the jury for the main competition. Italian actress Monica Bellucci hosted the opening and closing cerem ...

as the opening film.

Plot

A film director named Ismaël is working on his next film starring Ivan. It is based on his estranged brother and tells the story of a diplomat who is possibly a spy. In the middle of the night, Ismaël receives a phone call from Henri. Ismaël was married to Henri's daughter Carlotta, who has been missing for 20 years and presumed dead. Ismaël has a relationship with an astrophysicist named Sylvia now. Carlotta suddenly appears in front of them. Ismaël does not show up to the set. He accidentally shoots the film's producer in the arm.

Cast

as Ismaël Vuillard *

as Carlotta Bloom *

as Sylvia *

Louis Garrel Louis Garrel (born 14 June 1983) is a French actor and filmmaker. He is best known for his starring role in ''The Dreamers (2003 film), The Dreamers'', directed by Bernardo Bertolucci.

as Ivan Dedalus *

as Arielle / Faunia * László Szabó as Henri Bloom *

as Zwy *

Jacques Nolot Jacques Nolot (; born 31 August 1943) is a French actor, screenwriter and film director. Life and career Jacques Nolot was born on 31 August 1943, Marciac, Gers, a small village in Southwest France. A fragile child, Nolot was doted upon by his ...

as Claverie *

Catherine Mouchet Catherine Mouchet (born 21 August 1959) is a French actress. She studied at the Conservatoire de Paris, following the courses of Jacques Lassalle and Claude Régy. Her performance in the film '' Thérèse'', directed by Alain Cavalier, won he ...

as The intensive care doctor *

Samir Guesmi Samir Guesmi is a French actor. Filmography Actor Filmmaker Theatre References External links * 1967 births Living people French male film actors French male television actors Male actors from Paris French people of Algeria ...

as Doctor *

Isabelle Sadoyan Isabelle Sadoyan (12 May 1928 – 10 July 2017) was a French-Armenian actress. Career She made her theater debut in 1950 with the play ''Bottines et collets montés'', based on plays written by Eugène Labiche and Georges Courteline, directe ...

as Rose

Production

In ''Ismael's Ghosts'', Mathieu Amalric portrays a recurring character named Ismaël Vuillard, who appeared in Arnaud Desplechin's ''

Kings and Queen Kings or King's may refer to: *Kings: The sovereign heads of states and/or nations. *One of several works known as the "Book of Kings": **The Books of Kings part of the Bible, divided into two parts **The '' Shahnameh'', an 11th-century epic Pers ...

''. The name of Marion Cotillard's character, Carlotta, derives from

Alfred Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English film director. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featu ...

's film ''

Vertigo Vertigo is a condition in which a person has the sensation that they are moving, or that objects around them are moving, when they are not. Often it feels like a spinning or swaying movement. It may be associated with nausea, vomiting, perspira ...

''. The title of the film is an homage to

Norman Mailer Nachem Malech Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007), known by his pen name Norman Kingsley Mailer, was an American writer, journalist and filmmaker. In a career spanning more than six decades, Mailer had 11 best-selling books, at least ...

's novel ''

Harlot's Ghost ''Harlot's Ghost'' is a novel by Norman Mailer, published by Random House in 1991. The book is a fictional chronicle of the Central Intelligence Agency. The characters are a mixture of real people and fictional figures. At over 1,300 pages, the ...

''.

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan; born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his nearly 70-year ...

's song ''

It Ain't Me Babe "It Ain't Me Babe" is a song by Bob Dylan that originally appeared on his fourth album '' Another Side of Bob Dylan'', which was released in 1964 by Columbia Records. According to music critic Oliver Trager, this song, along with others on the al ...

'' was used in a scene from the film. The film includes quotes from

Jacques Lacan Jacques Marie Émile Lacan (, ; ; 13 April 1901 – 9 September 1981) was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist. Described as "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Sigmund Freud, Freud", Lacan gave The Seminars of Jacques Lacan, year ...

's '' Seminar VIII'',

Rainer Maria Rilke René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was an Austrian poet and novelist. Acclaimed as an Idiosyncrasy, idiosyncratic and expressive poet, he is widely recognized as ...

's ''Schlaflied'', and

Philip Roth Philip Milton Roth (; March 19, 1933 – May 22, 2018) was an American novelist and short-story writer. Roth's fiction—often set in his birthplace of Newark, New Jersey—is known for its intensely autobiographical character, for philosophical ...

's ''

American Pastoral ''American Pastoral'' is a Philip Roth novel published in 1997 concerning Seymour "Swede" Levov, a successful Jewish American businessman and former high school star athlete from Newark, New Jersey. Levov's happy and conventional upper middle ...

''.

Release

On 17 May 2017, the film premiered as the opening film at the

. At the Cannes, the film screened in a 114-minute version. In the United States, it screened in a 135-minute "director's cut" version. In France, the film was released in the shorter version at the big theaters and in the longer version at the art house theaters. At the Cannes' press conference, Arnaud Desplechin stated that the former one is "more sentimental" and the later one is "more intellectual". The film also screened at the

Vancouver International Film Festival The Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) is an annual film festival held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, for two weeks in late September and early October. The festival is operated by the Greater Vancouver International Film Festi ...

, the

New York Film Festival The New York Film Festival (NYFF) is a film festival held every fall in New York City, presented by Film at Lincoln Center. Founded in 1963 by Richard Roud and Amos Vogel with the support of Lincoln Center president William Schuman, NYFF i ...

, and the

Philadelphia Film Festival The Philadelphia Film Festival is a film festival founded by the Philadelphia Film Society held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The annual festival is held at various theater venues throughout the Greater Philadelphia Area. Overview The annual ...

Reception

Review aggregation A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

gives the film an approval rating of 52% based on 69 reviews, with an average score of 5.5/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "''Ismael's Ghosts'' unites an excellent cast — and their valiant efforts are often enough to counter its somewhat confused and disjointed story." On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 based on reviews from mainstream critics, the film has a score of 65 based on 23 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Sam C. Mac of ''

Slant Magazine ''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New Yor ...

'' gave the film 3 stars out of 4, calling it "one of Desplechin's most emphatic expressions of his personal, ever-expanding artistic vision." David Parkinson of ''

Empire An empire is a political unit made up of several territories, military outpost (military), outposts, and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a hegemony, dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the ...

'' gave the film 3 stars out of 5, saying, "even those without the foggiest about what they're watching will have to admit that the performances are compelling, and the prospect that the pieces will defy logic and slot into place remains enticing." Boyd van Hoeij of ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'' wrote: "The film's various storylines wouldn't hold together as well as they do if there weren't an overarching theme that ties everything together, with ''Ismael's Ghosts'' finally becoming a study about how our identities are constantly being shaped by outside forces that may forever be beyond our control, however much we try — and sometimes fail — to remain centered."

References

External links

*
Official website
{{Arnaud Desplechin 2017 drama films 2017 films French drama films Films set in France Films shot in France Films directed by Arnaud Desplechin Films with screenplays by Arnaud Desplechin 2010s French films 2010s French-language films French-language independent films French independent films French-language drama films