Having studied literature, he worked in the theatre as an actor and director. He learnt to be an actor notably with Christian Rist, Attilio Magiuli and Jean-Pierre Sarrazac. He played several roles in the theatre. He founded the Théâtre en demeure company with Jean-Pierre Rehm. He produced with Jean-Pierre Rehm Oxtiern, or Les malheurs du libertinage based on Sade at the Petit Théâtre Mouffetard; then Le mariage secret on Nietzsche's correspondence with Peter Gast at the Carré Silvia Montfort.

He studied film at La Fémis, where he made his first films. He invited Gilles Deleuze to come to the Fémis and give the students a lecture on questions raised from the reading of "Time Image" and "Movement Image", the two books by the philosopher based on film. On this occasion he filmed "Gilles Deleuze: "Qu'est-ce que l'acte de creation ?", co-directed with Arnaud Dauphin (1987, 49 min). Other short films were to follow, wavering between fiction and documentary: "La mémoire d'un ange" (1989, 22 min), "Le jardin du bonheur" (1991, 26 min). After La Fémis, he made a few more short films, including Avant après (1993, 20 min) and Les choses rouges (1994, 20 min). He taught film for several years at Ecole Nationale d'Arts in Cergy Pontoise.

Arnaud des Pallières made his first full-length film for the cinema in 1996, Drancy Avenir. In 1996, in Paris, a student of history is tracing the French participation in the extermination of the Jews in Europe. The film-maker was to say that he made this film because he belonged "to the generation that would see the last survivor of the Final Solution and that it was important today to learn to pass on the truth about the extermination without the support of this reality which is the living word of the survivors".

Two films for television were to follow: Is Dead (Portrait incomplet de Gertrude Stein), for the collection "Un siècle d'écrivains" directed by Bernard Rapp, and Disneyland, mon vieux pays natal for the "Voyages, voyages" collection for Arte.

His second full-length film for the cinema in 2003 was Adieu, with Michaël Lonsdale, Aurore Clément, Laurent Lucas and Olivier Gourmet. In danger in Algeria, Ismahel emigrates to France in order for those who are persuing him will forget about him. He recounts his clandestine journey in the form of a bible story, the myth of Jonas and the whale. 

Elsewhere in France, an old farmer has just lost his youngest son. His three other children help him through the painful time of the funeral, whilst the old father gradually sinks into a sort of melancholic indifference, little by little losing the will to live. These two stories take place in parallel.

His third full-length film Parc, based on a novel by John Cheever, with Sergi Lopez and Jean-Marc Barr, was presented at the 2008 Mostra in Venice and will be released in early 2009. The main character in the film, Georges Clou (George Nail), lives in one of those new residential suburbs. Married, he goes to the office in the morning, to church on Sunday, loves his wife, his son, his dog. Paul Marteau (Paul Hammer) is young, good looking, rich, intelligent. But torn between the severity of his own judgement on the world and his desire nevertheless to belong. One day, by chance, the paths of the two men cross. Clou sees an opportunity for a new, sincere friendship. Marteau, sees here a new reason to live: to crucify the ideal of happiness of the Western man and its incarnation in the person of Georges Clou. A nail is the perfect victim for a hammer.

Arnaud des Pallières is also a script writer and edits his own films.