TORONTO ‘08 | Desplechin, Assayas and Madame

Directors Arnaud Desplechin and Olivier Assayas were a part of this year's French at the Toronto International Film Festival. Desplechin's "Un Conte de Noel" (A Christmas Tale), which screened in competition at this year's Festival de Cannes and will screen at the upcoming New York Film Festival stars Catherine Deneuve about a family in the throws of breakdown during Christmas. Assayas' "L'Heure d'ete" (Summer Hours) invokes, what TIFF describes as "ideas of family heritage using a house and a garden as a metaphor for cultural memory..." The two hung out in Toronto together with their U.S. distributor, IFC Films, along with former Unifrance (NY) head Catherine Verret- Vimont earlier this week.