Brother and Sister (2022 film)

André Borkman arrives at an apartment where a memorial service is been held for Jacob, his brother-in-law Louis' son. Louis has a visceral reaction at the sight of André and the situation escalates from passive-aggressive insults to physical confrontation. They have been estranged for over 10 years. He kicks André out; on the hallway, he finds his sister Alice, crying. Louis states she has no right to cry as she has never expressed any interest in meeting Jacob. He demands them to leave the building, or he will call the police.

Five years later, Abel and Marie-Louise are driving to their daughter Alice's opening night of a stage adaption of Pride and Prejudice when they stumble upon an ice road. Ahead of them, a driver looses control of her car and ends up violently hitting a tree. Abel tries to calm her down while Marie-Louise calls for emergency. Suddenly, a truck coming from the same path also looses control on the ice road and collides in them, killing the girl and leaving Abel and Marie-Louise severely injured.

Alice's manager finds her completely distraught in her dressing room, minutes away from the play's start. She has just read Louis' latest novel, in which he portrayed her in a humiliating way leaving her wrecked and offended. It's the second time this has happened; on the first, she attempted to censor publication of the novel, which only aggravated her already tumultos relationship with Louis and led them to become estranged. Alice decides to go home, but is ultimately convinced to go on stage and perform. She's anxious about her parents, who are not picking up her calls and haven't arrived yet. Soon after the play, she's informed of the accident and is taken to the hospital where she meets her kid brother Fidèle (Benjamin Siksou). Their parents' conditions are serious: Her mother is on a coma, and her father will need surgery.

Zwy (Patrick Timsit), a friend of Louis, travels to countryside France where Louis has been living with his wife Faunia. Zwy informs him of the accident, highlighting he must come back to Lille because his parents are going to die. Louis reluctantly agree. Unlike with his sister, he has no quarrels with the rest of his family: His kid brother, Alice's son, and his parents — despite not seeing or speaking with any of them for the past five years. On the plane back to the city, Louis writes Alice a letter.

At the hospital, he bonds with Alice's son, Joseph, who is fond him of and misses his uncle. He stands by his dad's side for awhile. He decides to stay at his parents' apartment, his childhood home. He asks Fidèle to give the letter he wrote to Alice.

Eventually, Alice returns to work. On a rainy day, she encounters a fan, Lucia, who had professed her love for her on the night of the accident but was dismissed by Alice due to the circumstances. Lucia is soaking wet, shivering, and Alice invites her for a drink. As they talk on a bar, Lucia mentions she's a Romanian immigrant currently leaving on a shelter and has no job. Alice elaborates the reasons why she hates Louis: Years ago, she already an established actor and him struggling writer who often relied on her from money until a novel he wrote gained mainstream recognition and was awarded a prize. At the prize ceremony, she started to realize she hated him — now financially independent and famous by his own right; she divulges she met her husband, André, because he was long time friends with Louis.

As Louis attends to his dad at the hospital, shaving him and changing his clothes, they star a minor discussion as Abel says he wants Louis to attend his funeral, which Louis denies because he refuses to be in the same room as Alice. He asks his father why he never tried to intervene her malevolent inclinations and let her be such an emotionally oppressive person. As Louis waits in the hall while the nurses treat Abel, Alice appears and they see each other for the first since Jacob's death. Alice faints at his sight.

In a flashback, Alice and André tell Louis that they are dating. Louis does not appreciate that. Later, Alice and André married, Louis attempts to convince his sister to end it and says that he knows André for over 20 years and finds him repulsive and not right for her. Alice then informs Louis that she's pregnant.

Next day, a nurse notices a spot on Marie-Louise's leg. Alice and Fidèle learn the doctors' assessment determines Marie-Louise has ischemia and her the leg must be amputated or she won't survive. The two siblings discuss it with Abel. Alice is devastated and against the idea, but Abel decides he wants his wife to survive and that they are to proceed with the amputation. Later, while at rehearsal for the play, Alice is told by her manager to go to the hospital immediately. Marie-Louise's condition has drastically worsen and she's not expected to live thru the day. Marie-Louise dies soon after.

A bereaved Fidèle goes tell Louis about the news. Fidèle is inconsolable, and can't make it to the morgue where they are expecting him to bring his mother's burial clothes, so Louis goes in his place. At the waiting room of the morgue, Louis overhears thru an air vent a conversation between André and Alice, who are sitting around Marie-Louise's corpse. They discuss the funeral and Alice says she does not want Louis to attend it.

Alice meets Lucia to inform her this is their goodbye, she's going to bury her mother, and the play is over. Having become closer, the two women share words of comfort. However, as she takes Lucia to her shelter, Lucia nearly faints because she hasn't eaten anything for two days. Alice heads to the market. While shopping, she bumps into Louis, and they share a little moment of truce where no fight happens and everything, tho very brief, transpires swiftly.

At the hospital, Abel removes his oxygen mask and vitals monitors and walks into the corridor, where he collapses on the floor and dies.

Faunia travels to Lille for the funerals. Louis shows her a manuscript he wrote when he was 17 and has been rewritting it. The story, once again, is centered on his obsession and rage at his sister's behavior. Faunia advises against following thru with it, arguing Alice will kill him. Days after the funerals, Alice and Louis finally meet. He talks about his happy life with Faunia despite the death of their son. Alice apologizes to him, but adds that she doesn't even know what she's apologizing for.

Louis and Fidèle began cleaning and emptying their childhood apartment. Overcome by everything that has happened recently and thru the last 5 years, Louis climbs up to the rooftop and stands still at the edge of the building. Everyone follows him desperately, begging him to walk back. Alice appears and walks towards Louis. He tells her he's debating whether to jump or not, and asks for Fidèle and his boyfriend Simon to leave. Alice asks Louis what he's thinking about — he replies that he's regretting all the years he loved her not knowing she had always hated him. She leaves him alone on the edge of the building.

Louis comes down after sunset. He has a fever. Alice helps him change, covers him with a blanket, and they lie in bed together. They talk friendly. Alice tells him how, afterall, she was his muse and made a writer out of him; she declares she's tired of being an actress.

Some time later, Louis is teaching again. Alice has relocated to Abomey, in Benin; she sends a letter to Louis. She writes that she can forget about herself in Abomey, as living there is like going back to their childhoods. She says she has left everything behind: The theater, her husband, her son; and that she feels alive.

• Marion Cotillard as Alice Viullard
• Melvil Poupaud as Louis Vuillard
• Golshifteh Farahani as Faunia Vuillard
• Benjamin Siksou as Fidèle Vuillard
• Max Baisette De Malglaive as Joseph Vuillard
• Francis Leplay as André Borkman
• Alexander Pavloff as Simon
• Patrick Timsit as Zwy
• Joël Cudennec as Abel Viullard
• Cosmina Stratan as Lucia
• Clément Hervieu-Léger as Pierre
• Nicolette Picheral as Marie-Louise Vuillard

On 12 April 2021, Arte France Cinéma announced they were backing Arnaud Desplechin's next film, Brother and Sister. Marking Desplechin's third collaboration with Marion Cotillard after 1996's My Sex Life... or How I Got into an Argument and 2016's Ismael's Ghosts, and his second collaboration with Melvil Poupaud after 2008's A Christmas Tale.[3] Golshifteh Farahani was announced in the cast on 16 January 2022.[4] Grégoire Hetzel composed the score.[8]

The film is a co-production between Why Not Productions and Arte France Cinéma.[1]

The film had its world premiere at the 75th Cannes Film Festival in official competition on 20 May 2022.[6] Distributor Le Pacte released the film theatrically in France at the same time of its Cannes premiere.[7][2]

Brother and Sister's official soundtrack album was released on 4 July 2022.[24]

• Official website
• Brother and Sister at IMDb
• Brother and Sister at Cannes Film Festival
• Press Kit (PDF)