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      Chicken With Plums

      PG-13 Released Aug 17, 2012 1 hr. 31 min. Comedy Drama List
      74% 70 Reviews Tomatometer 71% 1,000+ Ratings Audience Score When his beloved violin is broken, famed musician Nasser Ali Khan (Mathieu Amalric) loses the will to live. Unable to find a replacement for the instrument, Nasser decides to retreat to his bed and await death. As he waits, Nasser plunges deep into reverie and experiences dreams both joyous and melancholic. He speaks with Azrael (Édouard Baer), the Angel of Death, who reveals the future of Nasser's children. As pieces of a puzzle fall together, the poignant secret of Nasser's life emerges. Read More Read Less Watch on Fandango at Home Premiered Aug 29 Buy Now

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      Chicken With Plums

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      Critics Consensus

      Whimsical and melancholy, Chicken with Plums is visually striking and dreamily compelling despite its occasional narrative missteps.

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      Audience Reviews

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      Georgan G A fairy tale of love & loss, happiness & grief. The visuals added to the pleasure of the film. Very unique & lovely. Needs voice-over for English speakers to increase their understanding. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 08/06/23 Full Review Audience Member made me cry the fist time I saw it... I always get lost in the beautiful images and the peculiar way of tellings such a melancolic story Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/19/23 Full Review Audience Member A beautiful fairytale in the French tradition, but with some magically realistic elements that reminded me of Jean-Pierre Jeunet's AMELIE or the Latin American filmmakers of the 90s. Sorry to see that this film didn't get as wide a US release as those films. Beautifully sculpted and circular in structure, the timeless look of this period piece will hopefully attract more of an audience, through those who find interest in Marjane Satrapi's work may be the first to seek it out. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/19/23 Full Review Audience Member From the creators of PERSEPOLIS comes the tale of a man who loses all hope and decides to die after his favorite violin is destroyed. That might sound odd, but of course it is a gross oversimplification of what goes on in CHICKEN WITH PLUMS. The central character, Nasser Ali (Matthieu Amalric), does indeed lose his precious violin, but its significance is revealed is multiple flashback sequences which give him background, motivation and depth. I don't really want to spoil anything, so I'll just say that the end result is rather poetic and touching. From a visual standpoint, it continues from the same place that PERSEPOLIS came from, while imbuing it with lots of color and fantastic elements. The film feels like a fairy tale at times, with a sense of whimsy and free-flowing creativity that flies in the face of rather depressing subject matter. Matthieu Amalric does a standup job as Nasser Ali, bringing a certain world-weariness to his character as well as youthful optimism in the flashback scenes. Ultimately, by the end of the film you understand why Nasser has chosen to just give up (although I don't condone suicide). Thematically, I think the film works on a couple of levels. First, there is the surface story which is about losing hope and one's raison d'etre. However, with a character named "Iran," I also think that there is a subtle political allegory as well. The film takes place in the 1950's and references are made visually and through dialogue to indicate that Marjane Satrapi is making commentary on this particular period of Iranian history. She also takes some potshots at America that I thought were slightly uncalled for, although no less funny in the context of the film. My only real issues with the film are that the supporting characters are mostly sidelined and/or underwritten, and the narrative structure lends itself to being a little episodic at times. That being said, though, I was quite pleased with the end result and emotionally invested the whole way. Overall, CHICKEN WITH PLUMS is a delightful cinematic confection from Marjane Satrapi about her native Iran. The subject matter is kind of depressing, but plenty of visual sugar (along with some emotional heft) helps the medicine go down smoothly. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/22/23 Full Review Audience Member More depressing than Persepolis, but still carrying Satrapi's sarcastic wit and her visual talent, "Chicken With Plums" is a melancholic but stunning journey into a fantasy land of whimsy and woe. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/02/23 Full Review Audience Member in this movie, nothing happens but everything happens. A creative meditation on a man's life! Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/19/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      Critics Reviews

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      Violet Lucca Film Comment Magazine These moments give flavor, but fail to cohere into any particular taste. Jun 28, 2013 Full Review Eric Kohn indieWire While visually scrumptious, the movie struggles to reach a greater profundity that it never quite obtains, but its childlike emulation of a grand tragedy is indelibly precious. Rated: B+ Apr 14, 2013 Full Review Joe Williams St. Louis Post-Dispatch Resurrects the spirit of Middle Eastern fables, albeit with a French twist. Rated: 3.5/4 Oct 18, 2012 Full Review Marya E. Gates Cool People Have Feelings, Too. (Substack) Has that larger-than-life Technicolor feel to it. Feb 12, 2024 Full Review Sergio Benítez Espinof The limitless resources of the seventh art end up playing in favor of making the production a better embodiment of the story than we could find in its original vehicle. [Full Review in Spanish] Apr 23, 2020 Full Review Mattie Lucas From the Front Row It's undeniably beautiful, but it also feels awfully familiar, with the lighthearted mix of comedy and melancholy veering closer to Jeunet's territory than Satrapri's singular wit. Rated: 2/4 Aug 6, 2019 Full Review Read all reviews

      Movie Info

      Synopsis When his beloved violin is broken, famed musician Nasser Ali Khan (Mathieu Amalric) loses the will to live. Unable to find a replacement for the instrument, Nasser decides to retreat to his bed and await death. As he waits, Nasser plunges deep into reverie and experiences dreams both joyous and melancholic. He speaks with Azrael (Édouard Baer), the Angel of Death, who reveals the future of Nasser's children. As pieces of a puzzle fall together, the poignant secret of Nasser's life emerges.
      Director
      Marjane Satrapi, Vincent Paronnaud
      Screenwriter
      Marjane Satrapi, Vincent Paronnaud
      Distributor
      Sony Pictures Classics
      Production Co
      Canal+
      Rating
      PG-13 (Some Drug Content|Smoking|Sensuality|Violent Images)
      Genre
      Comedy, Drama
      Original Language
      French (France)
      Release Date (Theaters)
      Aug 17, 2012, Limited
      Release Date (Streaming)
      Feb 4, 2014
      Box Office (Gross USA)
      $253.7K
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