My Golden Days

MY GOLDEN DAYS is writer/director Arnaud Desplechin’s (A CHRISTMAS TALE; KINGS & QUEEN) rich and extraordinary new feature. An epic yet intimate portrait of youth in all its terrifying beauty, the film premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight section of the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, where it was met with glowing reviews and was awarded the International Critics’ Week Prize.

Mathieu Amalric reprises the role of Paul Dédalus from Desplechin’s MY SEX LIFE…OR HOW I GOT INTO AN ARGUMENT in MY GOLDEN DAYS, the character’s origin story. Paul, now an anthropologist, prepares to leave Tajikistan and reflects on his life. He has a series of flashbacks that unfold in three episodes. Newcomer Quentin Dolmaire portrays Paul as an adolescent). The first includes his childhood in Roubaix, his mother's attacks of madness and his father's alienating depression. He next remembers his trip to the USSR, where a clandestine mission led him to offer up his own identity to a young Russian, whom he considers a phantom twin for the remainder of his life. Finally, he remembers University life and returning to his hometown to party with his sister and her best friend, his shifting circle of friends and their casual betrayals. And most of all, he remembers Esther (Lou Roy-Lecollinet), the beautiful, rude, haughty soul and love of his life.

“Marvelously vivid…a roving, restless tale of unhappy childhood, amateur espionage and agonizing first love. Some of the most fluid, emotionally resonant filmmaking of Desplechin’s career.” – Justin Chang, Variety

“One of the director’s most heartfelt and accessible titles. Roy-Lecollinet – and particularly Dolmaire – are the true stars of the film. Their exchanges crackle with the excitement and callowness of youth and the naivety and certainty of inexperience.” – Boyd van Hoeij, The Hollywood Reporter

“Firmly original. A rich and literary film, full of life and warmth and sadness and humor. Written, shot, cut and performed with palpable joy and intelligence. One of Deslpechin’s best.”
– Oliver Lyttelton, The Playlist