Rois et Reine (Kings and Queen) (2004)

88% of critics liked it
(56 reviews)
78% of users liked it
(2,694 ratings)

The stories of two desperate characters turn out to share an important link in this drama from French filmmaker Arnaud Desplechin. Nora (Emmanuelle Devos) is a woman in her mid-thirties who wants people to believe that her life is going just the way she wants. But a look below the surface shows this… More The stories of two desperate characters turn out to share an important link in this drama from French filmmaker Arnaud Desplechin. Nora (Emmanuelle Devos) is a woman in her mid-thirties who wants people to believe that her life is going just the way she wants. But a look below the surface shows this isn't quite the case; she's been divorced twice, her latest relationship is on the rocks, her ten-year-old son, Elias (Valentin Lelong), is becoming increasingly withdrawn, and her father (Maurice Garrel) is in poor health. When Nora learns that her father's digestive problems are actually cancer and he may only have a few days left to live, she desperately wants to turn to Ismael (Mathieu Amalric), her second husband. But Ismael is having a crisis of his own after a pattern of increasingly strange behavior has led him to an involuntary stay in a mental hospital. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 2 hr. 30 min.
Directed By: Arnaud Desplechin
Written By: Arnaud Desplechin, Roger Bohbot
Genres: Drama, Art House & International, Comedy

In Theaters: May 13, 2005 Limited
On DVD: Nov 15, 2005
Studio: Wellspring

Critic Reviews

Kate Taylor, Globe and Mail
Desplechin's big, bold, iconoclastic feature Rois et Reine is a disconcerting film that can turn your head at the oddest moments.
Susan Walker, Toronto Star
Funny, absurd, often mocking itself and always quoting cultural history.
Bob Longino, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
While these characters' lives are melodramatic, individual scenes burst with kinetic energy from fast editing and an script that deftly underscores the destructive nature of male-female relationships.
Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer
Kings and Queen, full of passion and humor, madness and grief, is close to a masterpiece.
James Berardinelli, ReelViews
Kings and Queen is at times compelling, at times devastating, and at times long-winded.
Desson Thomson, Washington Post
It's a puzzle of a film, but not the kind that intimidates you with inscrutability so much as one that beckons you into its antic eccentricity.
Jay Antani, Cinema Writer
A highly unstable compound of melodrama and offbeat comedy that elicits more shrugs of confusion than sighs of satisfaction
Anton Bitel, Eye for Film
a complex, character-driven film that never allows its themes - madness, love, coming of age - to become reducible to pat formulae, or over-sentimentalisation.
Erica Abeel, Film Journal International
Its novelistic breadth, pitched intensity and on-the-fly shooting style pull the viewer smack-dab into the middle of these lives.
Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
I can't quite get my head around it; Ismael is too cartoony and Nora is too icy.
MaryAnn Johanson, Flick Filosopher
[M]ixes with aplomb equal measures of intellectual screwball comedy and dark metaphysical tragedy, though part of the joke may be that one often can't tell which is which...
Chris Cabin, Filmcritic.com
the film proves, at the very least, that Desplechin is a director that garners due attention
Michele Kenner, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
This is a first-rate melo-dramedy under the influence of director Arnaud Desplechin.
Walter Chaw, Film Freak Central
Great filmmaking and, as does not always follow, a great film.
Shawn Levy, Oregonian
It is well-acted and written with a rigorous effort to skirt cliche, and it has the savor of real life throughout.
John Beifuss, Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)
Heroic and absurdist...
Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times
There's a looseness to the camera work and storytelling that's appealingly breezy: This film feels, for better or worse, like real life.
Sean Axmaker, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
His scenes ripple with undercurrents of awkward emotions... creating a film both devastating and uplifting, but he passes no judgments.

Read all 18 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Walter M

[font=Century Gothic]"Kings and Queen" starts out with Nora(Emmanuelle Devos) introducing herself directly to the camera. She is 35, runs an art gallery and has a ten year old son, Elias, by her first husband. The first husband died while she was pregnant. Her second… More
[font=Century Gothic]"Kings and Queen" starts out with Nora(Emmanuelle Devos) introducing herself directly to the camera. She is 35, runs an art gallery and has a ten year old son, Elias, by her first husband. The first husband died while she was pregnant. Her second husband, Ismael(Mathieu Amalric), wants to be dead, too, at least judging by the noose hanging over the chair in his apartment when the men in white coats come for him.(And I would like to say I was disappointed that they weren't carrying butterfly nets...Luckily for him, his psychiatriast is played by Catherine Deneuve.) Nora is about to marry husband number three in a couple of weeks. The latest model is unlike the first two - totally rich, responsible and quite boring. On a visit to Grenoble to visit her father and son, Nora learns that her father is dying and has very little time left. [/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic]"Kings and Queen" is an intelligent, thoughtful movie about growing older, learning responsbility towards taking care of others and what family means. It also makes a point about how we all have an affect on everybody around us, even if we don't realize it. The performances by both Devos and Amalric are superb. [/font]
alan j

An interesting film to be sure, and definitely worth a watch. Mathieu Amalric delivers a winning performance that shines above all else. This french melodrama again shines the dark and hidden side of a slice of life; what appears normal isnt and what appears happy and full may be in… More
An interesting film to be sure, and definitely worth a watch. Mathieu Amalric delivers a winning performance that shines above all else. This french melodrama again shines the dark and hidden side of a slice of life; what appears normal isnt and what appears happy and full may be in fact empty and sad. No real winners or losers at film's end except the viewer who will appreciate this rather rich story that has alot of depth and truth.

Cast

Emmanuelle Devos
as Nora
Mathieu Amalric
as Ismael
Catherine Deneuve
as Psychiatrist

Magalie Woch
as Arielle
Maurice Garrel
as Louis Jenssens
Nathalie Boutefeu
as Chloe Jenssens

See full cast

Rois et Reine (Kings and Queen) (2004)

Critic Reviews

Featured Audience Ratings

Walter M

alan j

Cast

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