A Christmas Tale

Rated NR; 150min; Director:Arnaud Desplechin
Sunday, December 13, 2009 1:00p

Special brunch presentation by AGLIFF (Austin Gay & Lesbian International Film Festival). See www.agliff.org for more information about AGLIFF.

Alamo Website: Catherine Deneuve stars in Arnaud Desplechin's holiday family drama as Junon, a mother who (in true French fashion) is ambivalently dying from cancer. But this isn't Junon's first experience with leukemia, her second-born son, Joseph, died from the condition decades before. Now, Junon's family gathers dutifully around her for the holidays, though family relations have deteriorated beyond repair. Years earlier, Elizabeth banished her alcoholic brother, Henri, from the family and denied him further contact with her troubled (read: "suspiciously queer?") son, Paul. But in a tragically justified twist, Henri appears to be the only bone marrow match for his mother, and with awkward confidence, reenters the lives of the family that rejected him so many years ago.