Marion Cotillard, Charlotte Gainsbourg in long-winded but rich 'Ismael's Ghosts'

``Ismael's Ghosts'' is a very French concoction, partly self-indulgent, partly obscure and partly long-winded, and yet, in the main, original and emotionally compelling. There are moments in this movie that are richer than anything you can possibly see in a movie theater this month, scenes that will fill you with awe.

And then there's a scene of Marion Cotillard dancing solo to Bob Dylan's ``It Ain't Me Babe'' that makes you wonder how it's possible that French people think it's actually OK to dance to folk music. Or, for that matter, to subject audiences to the spectacle.

At the movie's center is Mathieu Amalric as the title character, a director making a movie about his estranged brother, who works overseas as a government agent. Amalric's default mode is to look like he took a bath last week and has spent the time since chain-smoking and drinking hard liquor. But as Ismael is actually like that -- a guy tortured by insomnia who drinks and smokes all night -- Amalric must up his game and appear even more unwholesome. So here he looks like he didn't wash for three weeks and then was dragged by a truck.

Ismael's problem is that, about 20 years ago, his young wife disappeared off the face of the earth. As a result he is plagued by nightmares, and so is his father-in-law, Henri, also a filmmaker and apparently one of great stature. Ismael assumes Carlotta is dead, and Henri assumes she is alive, but neither of them know what's the truth -- but we do: We know, because this is a movie, folks. In the movies, no one stays missing.

So one day, just as Ismael's life is becoming bearable -- he is looking reasonably healthy and is living in a house on the beach with a thoroughly sane woman, played by Charlotte Gainsbourg -- Carlotta strolls in. This is where the movie becomes seriously intriguing, because director Arnaud Desplechin doesn't make things easy for the audience or for Ismael. Carlotta is something of a destructive force, and as brilliantly played by Cotillard, there is something skewed in her nature, something off, disconnected from emotion.

Yet at the same time, she is charming and beautiful and has been the ground zero of Ismael's psyche for more than two decades. In a lot of ways, she's a lot more interesting than the current woman in his life, though Gainsbourg makes it clear to us that she is the water in Ismael's fish tank. If she goes, he will suffer. So, it's a little like Ismael much choose between what he wants and what he needs, but the movie is not so tidy as that. There are many items in motion here, some that feed the movie's ideas and themes, and some that don't.

A particularly strong element is the story of Carlotta's father, played with arresting intensity by Laszlo Szabo. His life has been defined by loss, and this has shaped him into a great artist, but also into a deeply unhappy, aggrieved and fragile man. A scene in which he has a tantrum on an airplane is a standout, in that Szabo suggests the life history leading up to it.

Scenes from the movie Ismael is making and, generally, all scenes showing Ismael apart from the women in his life don't fare nearly as well. A whole sequence in which Ismael is freaking out in an old house and threatening his producer with a gun, for example, could be cut from the movie and no one would miss it, except, probably, the actors. And please, no more dancing to Dylan.

All the same, Desplechin's looseness, his willingness to take chances and act on inspiration, works more often than it doesn't, and makes for unusual scenes with unexpected life.

Mick LaSalle is The San Francisco Chronicle's movie critic.

Ismael's Ghosts

3 stars out of 4 stars Drama. Starring Mathieu Amalric, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Marion Cotillard. Directed by Arnaud Desplechin. In French with English subtitles. (R. 134 minutes.)