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A serio-comic epic about late twenty-something stasis, Arnaud Desplechin's third film Comment Je Me Suis Dispute...(Ou Ma Vie Sexuelle) is a humorous, grave, and intellectually rigorous examination of commitment in all forms. Centering on reluctant philosophy professor/career graduate student Paul Dedalus and his small circle of friends and relatives, Desplechin weaves a visual and narrative labyrinth of flashbacks, dreams, and quotidian conversations that reveal facets of Paul's romantic entanglements with three brunettes, his conflicted feelings about professional advancement, and the fallout from his waffling. Though Dedalus and his cohorts can quote Milan Kundera and Søren Kierkegaard, their learnedness does not guarantee wisdom. Desplechin provides no easy answers to the central philosophical dilemma regarding how to make the most of one's life while absorbing the inevitable disappointments in love and work. A critically acclaimed selection for the Cannes Film Festival, Comment Je Me Suis Dispute... earned Mathieu Amalric the Most Promising Actor César for his performance as Paul, and confirmed Desplechin's place as one of the most intriguing new French directors to emerge in the 1990s.