Ismael's Ghosts

Name: Ismael's Ghosts
Genre: Drama, Thriller, Romance
Released: March 23, 2018
Duration: 114 min
Rating: 65
Cast: Alba Rohrwacher, Catherine Mouchet, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Hippolyte Girardot, Jacques Nolot

2018

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Generally favorable reviews based on 23 Critic Reviews

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Generally favorable reviews based on 4 Ratings

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7.3	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 4 Ratings

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Movie Details & Credits

Magnolia Pictures | Release Date: March 23, 2018 | R

Starring: Alba Rohrwacher, Catherine Mouchet, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Hippolyte Girardot, Jacques Nolot, László Szabó, Louis Garrel, Marion Cotillard, Mathieu Amalric, Samir Guesmi

Summary: Twenty-one years ago, she ran away. And twenty-one years later, Carlotta (Marion Cotillard) is back from the void. But Ismael (Mathieu Amalric) has been busy rebuilding a life for himself with Sylvia (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and working on his next feature film. As Ismael's trials and tribulations unfurl, so too do those of his film'sTwenty-one years ago, she ran away. And twenty-one years later, Carlotta (Marion Cotillard) is back from the void. But Ismael (Mathieu Amalric) has been busy rebuilding a life for himself with Sylvia (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and working on his next feature film. As Ismael's trials and tribulations unfurl, so too do those of his film's protagonist: the idle, funny and reckless diplomat Ivan Dédalus (Louis Garrel). The character is a nod to the ghost of another of Desplechin's creations, the brother of Paul Dédalus, three-time hero of "My Sex Life... or How I Got Into an Argument," "A Christmas Tale" and "My Golden Days." A film within a film - and then some, Desplechin layers narrative upon narrative. … Expand

Director: Arnaud Desplechin

Genre(s): Drama, Thriller, Romance

Rating: R

Runtime: 114 min

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Critic Reviews

100

Glenn Kenny

Mar 22, 2018

As is customary in Mr. Desplechin’s work, there’s a lot of dialogue in Ismael’s Ghosts, but this movie’s nerve endings vibrate most avidly and tenderly in scenes where not a word is spoken. Read full review

Lisa Nesselson

May 27, 2017

Desplechin delivers with flying colours thanks to an excellent cast and a sometimes serious, sometimes funny story that never lets up or becomes predictable. [Cannes Version] Read full review

Justin Chang

Apr 5, 2018

The movie before us may be far from perfect, but with some crucial narrative and thematic tissue restored, it plays much more clearly, and satisfyingly, as an evocation of Ismael's emotional and psychological rupture, in his life as well as his art. Read full review

Alan Scherstuhl

Mar 22, 2018

There’s no way around it: The whole, here, is a mess. Even with the extra minutes, the film seems unfinished, the connections among its disparate scenarios vague and arbitrary. But outside of the espionage-movie and poor-lonely-director-dude-can’t-stop-getting-laid interludes, many of those scenarios unsettle, provoke (intentional) laughter, or prove engrossing, especially in their doublings and mysteries. Read full review

IndieWire Eric Kohn

May 27, 2017

At its best, the movie is a freewheeling gambit, hurtling in multiple directions at once, and it’s thrilling to watch Desplechin try juggle them all. [Cannes Version] Read full review

Empire David Parkinson

Jun 4, 2018

This director's cut might smack of self-indulgence, but it also says much about love and loss and the language of an artform that flirts with realism while remaining an illusion. Read full review

The Guardian Peter Bradshaw

May 27, 2017

This is an unfinished doodle of a film, a madly self-indulgent jeu d’esprit without substance: a sketch, or jumble of sketches, a ragbag of half-cooked ideas for other movie projects, I suspect, that the director has attempt to salvage and jam together. [Cannes Version] Read full review

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