The Life of the Dead

Power and corruption—and the men who rule with them—are ruthlessly scrutinized in this multilayered French work set in a shadow realm of arms dealers and blood ties. Part Shakespearean family tragedy, part political noir, it recalls such American paranoid thrillers of the 1970s as All the President’s Men and Marathon Man, revealing protagonists who work in the shadows, the unseen kings of the contemporary jungle.

Nora Cotterelle, a woman in her 30s is caring for her ill father, Louis Jenssens. While Nora tries to present a facade that all is well with her life, she is twice divorced and has a son, Elias, whose father is dead. Nora's present relationship is not going well, and she is soon to marry a businessman, while Elias is becoming increasingly withdrawn. A parallel storyline follows her former lover and second husband, Ismaël Vuillard, a musician, with whom she had lived for seven years. He is given to strange behaviour, and as a result he has been committed to a mental hospital, from which he is planning to escape. Nora learns that her father's digestive problems are actually cancer, and facing her father's death, Nora desperately seeks out Ismaël to ask that he reconnect with Elias, but he has mixed feelings about adopting her son. Moreover, he has met Arielle, another patient.

In 1940, Jean Ray began writing the "Polichinelle d'acier"; he would never finish the short story. A narrator will disassemble the text, explore the writer's past, call witnesses to the stand, and thus penetrate the workings of a formidable spy network.

Arnaud Desplechin documents the selling of his family home.

The film tells the tale of a widowed film director who is in the middle of making a film about an atypical diplomat inspired by his brother. While he has started a new life with Sylvia, he still mourns the death of a former lover, Carlotta, who passed away 20 years earlier; then Carlotta returns from the dead, causing Sylvia to run away.

Paul Dedalus is at a crossroads in his life. He has to make several decisions; should he complete his doctorate, does he want to become a full professor, does he really love his long-standing girlfriend, or should he re-start with one of his other lovers?

When their regal matriarch falls ill, the troubled Vuillard family come together for a hesitant Christmastime reunion. Among them is rebellious ne'er-do-well Henri and the uptight Elizabeth. Together under the same roof for the first time in many years, their intricate, long denied resentments and yearnings emerge again.

A Jewish girl in 19th century London dreams of becoming a stage actress.

Arnaud Desplechin adapts Philip Roth's 1990 novel 'Deception.'