Synopsis
Shortly before her wedding, art gallery director Nora travels from Paris to Grenoble to visit her preteen son, Elias, who is spending time with her aging professor father, Louis, recently diagnosed with terminal cancer. During her stay, she reaches out to her former lover, Ismaël, a viola player and father figure to Elias who has been committed against his will to a mental hospital. Ismaël, however, has his own problems to sort out.
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Cast
- Emmanuelle DevosNora Cotterelle
- Mathieu AmalricIsmaël Vuillard
- Maurice GarrelLouis Jenssens
- Catherine DeneuveMme Vasset
- Nathalie BoutefeuChloé Jenssens
- Joachim SalingerPierre Cotterelle
- Hippolyte GirardotMaître Marc Mamanne
- Magali WochLouis Jenssens
- Valentin LelongElias Cotterelle
- Shulamit AdarMme Seyvos
Recommendations
- 100
Christian Science Monitor
It's hugely ambitious, with a sweeping range of character types, frequently shifting moods, stylistic flourishes of many kinds, and some mighty wry satire, aimed largely at the world of psychotherapy. - 90
Chicago Reader
Arnaud Desplechin's best movie to date. - 90
Village Voice
This extravagant family melodrama, one of the highlights of last year's New York Film Festival, runs two and a half hours and never lags, so moment-to-moment enthralling are Desplechin's narrative gambits, as well as his reckless eccentricity. - 88
New York Post
A long, messy cinematic novel full of hate, love, murder, ghosts, madness, poetry and Catherine Deneuve. - 80
Variety
This enjoyable French pic welds together drama, melodrama and comedy. - 80
The New York Times
Late in his new film Kings and Queen, the wildly gifted French director Arnaud Desplechin yanks the rug from under his characters and sends both them and us reeling. - 80
TV Guide Magazine
The kind of brainy human comedy that only this formidable French auteur seems capable of making. - 75
New York Daily News
Arnaud Desplechin's sprawling drama exudes a go-for-broke determination that is frustrating and exhilarating.
