Director Arnaud Desplechin’s breakout film drew plaudits upon its release in 1996, with actor Mathieu Amalric winning a César for his performance as Paul Dédalus. (Keen-eyed viewers will also spot future Oscar-winner Marion Cotillard in the cast.) Featuring a sprawling running time and a plot about the romantic dalliances of a philosophy grad student, My Sex Life shares much in common with director Jean Eustache’s post-New Wave masterpiece The Mother and the Whore (1973). And like Eustache’s film, it consists largely of conversations in cafés, philosophy lecture halls, and the bedroom. “For a French guy,” Desplechin wryly quipped, “this sort of film is like a Western for Americans.” Amalric would go on to reprise his role as Dédalus in two subsequent Desplechin films, A Christmas Tale (2008) and My Golden Days (2015).

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