2/5 stars

Asghar Farhadi, the esteemed, prize-winning Iranian director behind A Separation and The Salesman, returns to France for his third foreign excursion.

His first, 2013’s The Past, was a lean work that claimed Bérénice Bejo the best actress prize when it played at the Cannes Film Festival. This latest Parisian-set tale of voyeurism, which also unspools in Cannes’ main competition, is a bloated misfire, despite boasting the crème de la crème of French cinema.

Parallel Tales is loosely inspired by the sixth episode of Krzysztof Kieslowski’s epic Dekalog, which was later expanded into the feature-length A Short Film About Love. Sadly, while the bones of the Kieslowski work remain, none of its tension does.

At the core here is Isabelle Huppert’s ageing novelist Sylvie, who has a telescope in her flat trained on the building opposite while she seeks inspiration for her new book. Across the way is a sound recording studio, where Nicolas (Vincent Cassel), his brother Theo (Pierre Niney) and Nita (Virginie Efira) work closely.