MY GOLDEN DAYS (15)

REVERED French writer-director Arnaud Desplechin returns to his celebrated 1996 drama My Sex Life . . . Or How I Got Into An Argument with a sensitively observed prequel, which ruminates affectionately on the formative years of the central character Paul Dedalus (Mathieu Almaric).

Co-written by Julie Peyr, the ironically titled origin story opens with Paul preparing to return to Paris after several years working in Tajikstan.

This relocation sparks a series of fond and painful reminiscences such as 11-yearold Paul (Antoine Bui) severing ties to his domineering mother Jeanne (Cecile Garcia Fogel) and moving in with his great-aunt Rose (Françoise Lebrun) shortly before the matriarch commits suicide.

Paul’s grief-stricken and depressed father Abel (Olivier Rabourdin) struggles to care for Paul and his younger siblings Delphine (Ivy Dodds) and Ivan (Timon Michel). A few years later, Paul (now played by Quentin Dolmaire) and best friend Marc (Elyot Milshtein) become embroiled in ham-fisted espionage during a school trip to Minsk — a deception that will return to haunt the older Paul when he least expects it.

Another fractured memory recalls the deep bond between adolescent Paul, his sister Delphine (now played by Lily Taeib) and brother Ivan (now played by Raphael Cohen) as adulthood beckons, and an intense relationship between Paul and Delphine’s pretty schoolmate Esther (Lou Roy-Lecollinet).