The ethereal quality of Arnaud Desplechin’s films makes it often quite difficult to write about them, and his 2017 Cannes Film Festival opener Ismael’s Ghosts isn’t an exception. Yet this elusiveness, together with a sense of often overwhelming ambition, make this particular film possibly the best picture we have of Desplechin’s buzzing mind.
Following his tradition of cinematic alter egos, Desplechin centres on Ismaël Vuillard (Mathieu Amalric), a “fabricant de films,” literally “manufacturer of films” who, as this strange expression suggests, takes his craft very personally, making movies out of all the pieces of his life. Desplechin immediately captivates the spectator by showing Ismaël’s exciting spy-film-within-a-film first, with all the lyricism and mystery of that genre. Crossfades, slow-motion and orchestra…