Rois et reine (2004)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Arnaud Desplechin

Writers:

Roger Bohbot (writer)
Arnaud Desplechin (writer)

Release Date:

22 December 2004 (France)

Genre:

Drama | Comedy

Plot:

Parallel storylines tell the current state of affairs for two ex-lovers: Nora's a single mother who comes to care for her terminally ill father; holed in up in mental ward, Ismael, a brilliant musician, plots his escape.

Plot Keywords:

Grenoble | Paris | Psychiatric Hospital | Adoption | Orphan

Awards:

9 wins & 9 nominations

Cast

Emmanuelle Devos	...	Nora Cotterelle
Mathieu Amalric	...	Ismaël Vuillard
Catherine Deneuve	...	Mme Vasset
Maurice Garrel	...	Louis Jenssens
Nathalie Boutefeu	...	Chloé Jenssens
Jean-Paul Roussillon	...	Abel Vuillard
Magali Woch	...	Arielle, la "chinoise"
Hippolyte Girardot	...	Maître Marc Mamanne
Noémie Lvovsky	...	Elizabeth
Elsa Wolliaston	...	Dr. Devereux (as Elsa Woliaston)
Geoffrey Carey	...	Claude
Valentin Lelong	...	Elias Cotterelle
Thierry Bosc	...	M. Mader
Olivier Rabourdin	...	Jean-Jacques
Olivier Borle	...	Le moniteur
Didier Sauvegrain	...	Le chirurgien
François Toumarkine	...	Prospero
Miglen Mirtchev	...	Caliban
Marc Bodnar	...	Le psy de garde
Catherine Rouvel	...	Monique Vuillard
Jan Hammenecker	...	Nicolas
Marie-Françoise Gonzales	...	L'infirmière
Joachim Salinger	...	Pierre Cotterelle
Daniel Cohen	...	Le gynécologue
Frédéric Epaud	...	L'employé de mairie
Claude Phor	...	Le dingue
Karim Belkhadra	...	L'interne psy
Gaëlle Dill	...	Victorine
Shulamit Adar	...	Mme Seyvos
Marc Betton	...	Léopold Virag, l'éditeur
Gilles Cohen	...	Simon
Francis Leplay	...	Christian, le félon
Bernard Garnier	...	Le médecin-légiste
Joël Dahan	...	L'auteur
Rachid Hami	...	Marcello
Marion Touitou	...	Delphine
Yann Coridian	...	Fidèle
Andrée Tainsy	...	La grand-mère
Sarah Lefèvre	...	L'amie de Nora
Denis Falgoux	...	Le flic
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Laurencina Lam	...	Hospital receptionist
Anh Lili
Alain Pointier	...	L'huissier

Directed by
Arnaud Desplechin

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Roger Bohbot		writer
Arnaud Desplechin		writer

Produced by
Pascal Caucheteux	....	producer

Original Music by
Grégoire Hetzel

Cinematography by
Eric Gautier

Film Editing by
Laurence Briaud

Casting by
Stéphane Touitou

Production Design by
Dan Bevan

Costume Design by
Nathalie Raoul

Makeup Department
Benoît Lestang	....	special makeup effects artist
Eric Monteil	....	key hair stylist
Thi-Loan Nguyen	....	key makeup artist

Production Management
Marine Billet	....	assistant unit manager
Mederic Bourlat	....	unit production manager
Martine Cassinelli	....	production manager
Laurencina Lam	....	post-production manager
Thibault Mattel	....	production general manager
Isabelle Tillou	....	production manager
Edouard Decker	....	assistant unit manager (uncredited)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Barbara Canale	....	assistant director
Julien Greco	....	second assistant director
Denis Kralj	....	second assistant director
Gabriele Roux	....	first assistant director

Art Department
Yann Dury	....	construction coordinator
Laurent Saimond	....	property master
Nathalie Serrière	....	assistant art director
Maxime Girault	....	art department trainee (uncredited)

Sound Department
Nicolas Bouvet	....	assistant sound editor
Frank Ceven	....	assistant foley artist
Pascal Chauvin	....	foley artist
Yves Coméliau	....	assistant sound
Rym Debbarh-Mounir	....	dialogue editor
Edouard d'Heucqueville	....	sound mix technician
Jean-Pierre Laforce	....	sound
Sophie Laloy	....	assistant sound
Claire-Anne Largeron	....	assistant sound editor
Christian Monheim	....	sound
Sébastien Noiré	....	sound editor
Seppe van Groeningen	....	boom operator
Benjamin Viau	....	assistant foley artist

Camera and Electrical Department
Néwine Behi	....	second assistant camera
Thomas Collignon	....	second assistant camera
Patrick de Ranter	....	Steadicam operator
Claudia Imbert	....	assistant camera
Nicolas Leroy	....	grip
Jean-Claude Lother	....	still photographer
Pascale Marin	....	assistant camera
Eric Martinot	....	key grip

Casting Department
Amélie Covillard	....	extras casting assistant

Editorial Department
Idit Bloch	....	assistant editor
Célia Lafitedupont	....	assistant editor
Benjamin Weill	....	assistant editor

Other crew
Marie Barré	....	location scout
Agnès Chabot	....	press attache
Sylvia Pain	....	administrator
Emmanuel Dehaene	....	additional assistant location manager (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Why Not Productions
• France 2 Cinéma (co-production)
• Rhône-Alpes Cinéma (co-production)
• Centre National de la Cinématographie (CNC) (participation)
• Procirep (participation)
• Canal+ (participation)
• CinéCinéma (participation)
• Centre Européen Cinématographique Rhône-Alpes (participation)
• Cofimage 15 (participation)
• Wild Bunch (participation)

Distributors

• 791 Cine (2007) (Argentina) (theatrical)
• Bac Films (2004) (France) (theatrical)
• Filmhouse (2005) (Mexico) (theatrical)
• Groupement National des Cinémas de Recherche (GNCR) (2004) (France) (theatrical)
• Wellspring Media (2005) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Amazonia Films (2004-2012) (Venezuela) (all media)
• Four Films (2007) (Chile) (DVD)
• Orlando Films (2005) (Israel) (all media)

Other Companies

• Les Auditoriums de Joinville  sound re-recording (as Auditoriums de Joinville)

Also Known As:

Kings & Queen (USA)
Kings and Queen (International: English title)

Runtime:

France:150 min | USA:150 min | Argentina:150 min

Country:

France

Language:

French | English | German

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Brazil:14 | Hungary:16 | Japan:PG-12 | Portugal:M/16 | Argentina:16 | South Korea:15 | Switzerland:16 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:16 (canton of Vaud) | UK:15 | France:U | USA:Unrated

Filming Locations:

Grenoble, Isère, France

Company:

Why Not Productions

Trivia:

Visa d'exploitation en France #102243

Quotes:

Nora Cotterelle: There are four men I loved. I killed two of them.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Trust the Man (2005)

Soundtrack:

Moon River

Wildly unedited but consistently engaging

(San Francisco Film Festival showing, March 22, 2005) An amazing if somewhat indigestible film, Desplechin's KINGS AND QUEEN (Rois et reine) is a genre-bending family drama that alternates wired comedy with solemn tragedy, in particular nutty violist Ismaël's (Mathieu Amalric's) tax problems and sudden third-party commitment to a mental hospital and ex-girlfriend Nora's (Emmanuelle Devos') discovery that her writer father is dying of advanced stomach cancer. Meanwhile Nora is haunted by memories of the father of her young son Elias (Valentin Lelong), is about to marry a rich "gangster," and other relatives wander in and out of a tumultuous narrative which alternates present tense scenes with flashbacks, dreams and fantasies. Buffoonery and melodrama, which are sometimes hard to separate, turn out to work well together as director Desplechin modestly points out is true of Shakespeare, whose King Lear may have given him the idea for the brutal, vindictive final letter Nora's father, Louis Jenssens (Maurice Garrel) leaves for her. The audience at the SFFF cheered a gratuitous sequence where Ismaël's father Abel (Jean-Paul Roussillon) singlehandedly subdues three punks trying to rob his convenience store while Ismaël looks on with terror. In the next scene, father and son are lifting weights together at a health club. The plan by Abel, who was himself adopted, to adopt a man who's lived with him and his wife for years, over the protests of his adult children, rhymes palpably with the question of Ismaël's adopting Elias, who doesn't like Nora's new man, Jean-Jacques (Olivier Rabourdin). The long scene where Ismaël explains to Elias why he can't adopt him, while they walk through a museum, is one of a number of tours de force.

Secondary characters in this overwritten but always entertaining drama make themselves hard to forget though buffoonery in the case of the Ismaël's junkie lawyer (Hypolytte Girardot); though their neediness, in the case of Arielle, "la Chinoise" a flirtatious 'princess' at the psych hospital, (Magalie Woch) or Nora's sister down-and-out Chloé, (Nathalie Boutefeu); bitchiness in the case of Ismaë's sister. Ismaël's usual shrink is a huge African grande dame; he gets his entrance exam and his walking papers at the hospital from none other than Catherine Deneuve (whose iciness and soulfulness would be an unforgettable blend even if she were not already one of the world's most beautiful sixty-somethings). The women are goddesses, bitches, or queens. Ismaël says women have no souls; but the story's main men are talented but narcissistic problem children. Elias seems poised to grow up into one of those too. Most of the acting is remarkable, or at the very least arresting. The mercurial Amalric and lovely Devos completely live up to their top billing. Still, even their parts might have done with some trimming back.

The movie comes with allusions to Leda and the Swan, Nietsche, Yeats, Emily Dickenson, and a large number of musical references including rap (and a break dancing demo by Ismaël at the mental hospital), Klezmer, Randy Newman and, as a framing device, Moon River. Suspicions that there may be too much going on here are stifled by sheer pleasure in the drama of it all.

Six César nominations in France, where it opened in late 2004.

The title may refer to Shakespeare's plays, or to the way paterfamilias are seen by their children. "Kings and Queen" is wildly unedited and at 2 ½ hours definitely too long; Desplechin even acknowledged repeatedly that his answers to questions after the SFFF showing were too long too. But his inability to edit his work down may be hard to separate from his unique flavor and charm. Desplechin wrote the excellent screenplay for "Un monde sans pitié" ("A World Without Pity," 1989) the story of a fascinating young loser. "Desplechin is a wonder with actresses, at least as long as they're with him: Devos' character is close enough to 'My Sex Life' star and former Desplechin paramour Mariane Denicourt that she responded to the movie with a retaliatory roman à clef," writes Sam Adams in the Philadelphia City Paper. A question about this contretemps met with a flurry of interesting doubletalk from the soft-spoken director.