ALLAN HUNTER at the Movies.

A GIDDY MIXTURE of melodrama, soap opera and farce, ‘Kings and Queen’ is a freewheeling statement on the relationship between parents and children; the love that is given and the pain that is caused.

Ten years ago, director Arnaud Desplechin made the three hour ‘Ma Vie Sexuelle’. ‘Kings And Queen’ isn’t quite that epic a tale (fortunately) but it is involved, introspective and ultimately self-indulgent.
  
Emmanuelle Devos is Nora, a thirtysomething art gallery manager with a ten year-old son who is the love of her life. The boy’s father died before he was born. Her second husband Ismael (Mathieu Almaric) is an edgy, eccentric musician. He has recently been confined to a psychiatric hospital at the request of his family.

When Nora’s father is diagnosed with terminal cancer she reaches out to Ismael for help. Her circumstances are tragic. His are almost comical as he seems trapped in a Kafkaesque nightmare from which there is no obvious escape.

Gradually we learn more of their past relationship, building a deeper understanding of the characters and what has made them the people they now are. Well-paced and intriguing, ‘Kings and Queen’ is also hampered by characters that sometimes seem smug and self-satisfied.
  
The direction also seems a little too pleased with itself as Desplechin worships the beauty of Devos or favours giddy camerawork and staccato editing. Catherine Deneuve has a cameo role as Ismael’s psychiatrist, and the combination of reputations might be enough to endear this to lovers of French cinema.
  
KINGS AND QUEENS (Rois et Reine)
General release, selected cinemas
Director: Arnaud Desplechin
Stars: Emmanuelle Devos, Mathieu Almaric, Catherine Deneuve
Screenwriter: Arnaud Desplechin, Roger Bohbot
Certificate: 15
Running time: 150 mins
Country: France
Year: 2004

© Allan Hunter, 2005