Arnaud Desplechin-Rois et reine (2004)

KINGS AND QUEEN is a rich film that tells two stories, converging on the life of two people, Ismaël and Nora, who on first glance seem to have nothing to do with each other. Nora (Emmanuelle Devos), 35 years old, always charming and caring, has a 10-year-old son from her first husband - who committed suicide. She is divorced from the second husband Ismaël (Mathieu Amalric) and about to marry her third. She travels to Grenoble to take care of her dying father and to spend time with her silent son. Meanwhile, Ismaël, a sane but neurotic violinist, is flipping out. Having problems with tax collectors and his sister, he picks up some eccentric habits that land him temporarily in a mental institution, where he provokes the psychiatrist (Catherine Deneuve) and a young girl who is attracted by his behaviour. This is the moment when Nora comes to him with the question to that he should adopt her son Elias. From then on, Desplechin unveils more and more details about his characters Nora and Ismaël, who turn out to be quite different from what one expects. ArtificialEye




The stories of Nora during a brief period when her father falls ill and of Ismaël while involuntarily committed to a mental institution for observation. Nora's in her 30s and has loved four men - her son Elias, Elias's deceased father, her own father, and Ismaël, a musician given to odd behavior with whom she lived seven years. She will soon marry a businessman. Faced with her father's death, Nora seeks out Ismaël to ask that he reconnect with Elias; a great deal else roils from her past. Ismaël has his own challenges, not the least of which are his feelings toward adopting Elias and his meeting Arielle, another patient. Ismaël's surface shows a lot; Nora's, very little. (http://imdb.com/title/tt0344273/plotsummary)




Expertly mixing comedy, tragedy and melodrama, Kings and Queen tells the story of two former lovers who find their lives linked once again, inexplicably. Nora (Emmanuelle Devos) is a 35-year old art gallery director and single mother who has been unlucky in love until now when she meets a successful businessman. When a crisis occurs, Nora must track down her ex-husband, Ismaël (Mathieu Amalric) a disheveled neurotic musician who has descended into a comic nighmare and is mistakenly committed to a mental hospital under the control of a steely clinical psychiatrist (Catherine Deneuve). As their worlds collide, the stage is set for a truly unforgettable ending. (amazon.com)




A film can be smart and subtle and still be a roller coaster ride. Case in point: Kings and Queen; Arnaud Desplechin's brilliant, exhilarating movie never takes a predictable turn. We follow two people along mostly parallel paths: Nora (Emmanuelle Devos, from Read My Lips), a chic gallery owner with an ailing father and an impending marriage, and Ismael (Mathieu Amalric), a hyperactive musician who's been sent to a psychiatric hospital against his will. The story of the self-contained Nora can be as scorching as an Ingmar Bergman movie (especially late in the film), while daffy Ismael's tale is a screwball comedy at times--complete with a droll Catherine Deneuve as his bemused doctor. Desplechin's How I Got Into an Argument… (My Sex Life) was one of the best European films of the 1990s (also starring Amalric and Devos), and he is gifted with a sure sense of human behavior as well as cinematic dexterity.. Rarely have so many scenes of people talking in rooms flown by so quickly. Movies need not travel to exotic locales to summon up an adventure, and this is film adventuring of a high order. (--Robert Horton - Editorial Reviews - Amazon.com)