This meta–romantic thriller from French director Arnaud Desplechin (A Christmas Tale, DFF31) simultaneously considers the lunacy of the creative process and the ways in which past is prologue when it comes to affairs of the heart.

Mathieu Amalric (Quantum of Solace; The Grand Budapest Hotel; The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, DFF30, also screening this year) plays Ismael, an emotionally volatile filmmaker who’s working on a new project when a love interest enters the picture. The catch is that he already has a love interest, Sylvia (Lars von Trier muse Charlotte Gainsbourg). The other catch is that the interloper, Carlotta (Marion Cotillard), was presumed dead 20 years ago.

Desplechin himself has described Ismael’s Ghost as “contemporary, burlesque, epic, amorous, mad and full of wisdom.”

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