Brother and Sister

Brother and Sister (Frère et Sœur, 2022) is a French family drama you can watch online on iFILM. Arnaud Desplechin directs Marion Cotillard and Melvil Poupaud as two siblings who have not spoken in more than twenty years — until the death of their parents forces them into the same rooms again.

Alice is a celebrated stage actress. Louis was once a teacher and poet before grief over a lost child closed him off. The film never hands you a single reason for the rift; it surfaces in shards — an old wound, jealousy, a sentence that could never be unsaid. Hospital corridors and a funeral keep pushing the two into orbit around each other, neither able to embrace nor finish the fight.

Desplechin films this family rupture up close, in glances and held breath rather than big confrontations. Cotillard is brittle and prickly at once, a woman you understand even when you can't forgive her. The film premiered in competition at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. It's not an easy night in, but it rewards anyone who loves acting pushed to its edge. Stream Brother and Sister (2022) online on iFILM.