Plot

When Joanne meets Eric she develops a game of seduction which is based upon the rules of the game of draughts. Two games of strategy that have much more in common than we would have thought in the first place.

We all have love relationships, however, it is always difficult to determine how they function, when do they actually begin and why do they end. The apparent simplicity of the game of seduction hides an infinity of strategies of which we are often unconscious. Most players will remain beginners, but certain players learn how to master the game in order to lead it towards their own interests and desires. Joanne is one of these players. Nevertheless, our narrator will never speak of love; her voice over will expose all the strategies, thoughts and movements that determine success in another game: the game of draughts. 'Le Jeu de Dames' (Draughts) establishes a parallelism between the game of seduction and the game of draughts. The aseptic manual of rules that Joanne narrates will be confronted to her behaviour in her love life; thus, little by little, these rules will become an allegory of the strategies played by Joanne in her conquest of Eric. The similarities between both games will progressively diffuse the frontier that separates them and merge them into the same game: the analysis and comprehension of the opponent.—Irene de Lucas