Kings & Queen
(2004)
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Kings & Queen
(2004)
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Emmanuelle Devos | ... |
Nora Cotterelle
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Geoffrey Carey | ... |
Claude
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Thierry Bosc | ... |
M. Mader
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| Olivier Rabourdin | ... |
Jean-Jacques
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Maurice Garrel | ... |
Louis Jenssens
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Valentin Lelong | ... |
Elias Cotterelle
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Olivier Borle | ... |
Le moniteur
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Didier Sauvegrain | ... |
Le chirurgien
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| Mathieu Amalric | ... |
Ismaël Vuillard
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François Toumarkine | ... |
Prospero
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| Miglen Mirtchev | ... |
Caliban
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Marc Bodnar | ... |
Le psy de garde
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Jean-Paul Roussillon | ... |
Abel Vuillard
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Catherine Rouvel | ... |
Monique Vuillard
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| Catherine Deneuve | ... | ||
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. Written by <jhailey@hotmail.com>
There is SO much going on in this film, but it has rhythm, pace, a great soundtrack, and enjoyable, charismatic performances, that kept me engaged from the word go. The editing owes something to 60s Godard - lots of jump cuts in the dialogue scenes - and 80s Rohmer - anguished 30 somethings worrying about true love - and possibly, in its tour de force final sequence, a reference to La Jetee, which is also of course about memory, fate, and mortality. And then there is the rather bizarre Audrey reference which opens the film: as Nora steps out of a black car, clutching her morning coffee, clothed in black, her hair wound up on her head, the strains of Monn River sound. So far, so post-modern. This is is a film that is freighted with filmic, literary, theatrical (esp Shakespeare and the Tempest) and artistic allusions, but that uses these in service of a specific point: that these cultural references and allusions make the web of our being - that art is how we communicate to each other (notice that all the characters communicate through art - the gift Nora gives her father, the music Ismael dances to, the book the father writes - even the 'murder scene' is filmed through a highly stylised mise-en-scene): that 'artifice' can reveal the deepest and most moving of human emotions. It is a beautiful film that will move you and make you leave the cinema feeling transported. And Deneuve is just great! I love the bit where Ismael asks her if anyone has ever told her she's beautiful, and she gives a slight twist of her lips, sighs, and says, yes, she has heard that before. Just because something has become cliché, doesn't mean it's not true.