‘Brother and Sister’ Trailer: Arnaud Desplechin Directs Marion Cotillard in Cannes Competition Title
An Arnaud Desplechin film showing up in the Cannes competition lineup is as expected as the changing seasons. An Arnaud Desplechin film starring two titans of French cinema, Marion Cotillard and Melvil Poupaud? Even more welcome. “Brother and Sister” is among the main competition titles heading to this year’s festival, which runs May 17 through May 28. Ahead of the film community’s big return to the Croisette, watch the first trailer for the film, exclusive to IndieWire, below.
In “Brother and Sister,” or “Frère et Soeur” as it’s known in French, Alice (Cotillard) and Louis (Poupaud) are siblings. She is an actress, while he was a teacher and a poet. For the past two decades, Alice has resented him, and they’ve remained estranged for the last 20 years. That is, until their parents become involved in a serious accident, and they are forced to toss blood under the bridge and reconcile anew.
The full cast includes “Paterson” and “Extraction” breakout Golshifteh Farahani, “Blue Is the Warmest Color” star Benjamin Siksou, plus Patrick Timsit, Abel Joël Cudennec, Cosmina Stratan, Francis Leplay, Max Baissette de Malglaive, Nicolette Picheral, Clément Hervieu-Léger, and Alexandre Pavloff.
Cotillard was last seen in 2021’s Cannes opening night film “Annette” opposite Adam Driver, while Melvil Poupaud starred in 2021’s “The Young Lovers” and appeared in fellow Cannes regular François Ozon’s queer romance “Summer of 85.”
Desplechin wrote “Brother and Sister” with his regular collaborator Julie Peyr, whom she last teamed with for Desplechin’s 2021 Philip Roth adaptation “Deception,” starring Denis Podalydes and Léa Seydoux. Desplechin otherwise recently helmed a French TV filming of Tony Kushner’s play “Angels in America.”
Including “Brother and Sister,” Desplechin has been nominated for the Palme d’Or, the festival’s top prize, seven times. His last film in the competition was the police thriller “Oh Mercy!” from 2019.
This year, Desplechin will be up against stiff international cinema competition in the Cannes lineup. David Cronenberg, Kelly Reichardt, Claire Denis, the Dardenne brothers, James Gray, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Ruben Ostlund, and Park Chan-wook all have films premiering in France this month.
While “Brother and Sister” doesn’t yet have a U.S. distributor, Wild Bunch is handling sales during Cannes.
