Kings and Queen

Released Sep 3, 2004

2h 30m

Comedy

Drama

List

87%

Tomatometer

60 Reviews

80%

Audience Score

2,500+ Ratings

Shortly before her wedding, art gallery director Nora (Emmanuelle Devos) travels from Paris to Grenoble to visit her preteen son, Elias, who is spending time with her aging professor father, Louis (Maurice Garrel), recently diagnosed with terminal cancer. During her stay, she reaches out to her former lover, Ismael (Mathieu Amalric), a viola player and father figure to Elias who has been committed against his will to a mental hospital. Ismael, however, has his own problems to sort out.

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Critics Consensus

A dryly comic, stylistically brave film.

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Jonathan Rosenbaum

Chicago Reader

It adds up to more than the sum of its parts, but you may not realize it for a day or so.

Oct 5, 2019

Full Review

Kate Taylor

Globe and Mail

Desplechin's big, bold, iconoclastic feature Rois et Reine is a disconcerting film that can turn your head at the oddest moments.

Rated: 3/4

Jun 30, 2006

Full Review

Susan Walker

Toronto Star

Funny, absurd, often mocking itself and always quoting cultural history.

Rated: 3.5/4

Jun 30, 2006

Full Review

Yasser Medina

Cinefilia

A very bittersweet film about the traps of loneliness, the difficulties of marital relationships and the philosophical dilemmas of family ties. [Full review in Spanish]

Rated: 7/10

Aug 6, 2020

Full Review

Tony McKibbin

The List

Desplechin's brilliant new effort is not so much a film about mad people, but one, perhaps like [Lars von Trier's] The Idiots, with a madness running through it... A treat from start to finish.

Rated: 4/5

Apr 24, 2019

Full Review

Dorothy Woodend

The Tyee (British Columbia)

A willing victim, a godlike father, the collusion between the two and from this perversion comes deep and unsettling woes -- it's an odd concoction, one part hemlock to two parts froth. But I think I've seen it all before, and before and before.

Aug 24, 2017

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Audience Member

amazing concept, casting and execution but I found the entire movie to be grating on the nerves despite the accomplishment

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/30/23

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Audience Member

Simply put: As good as it gets.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/22/23

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Audience Member

Ahhhh! Mathieu Amalric! A very simple French love story: a woman who was in love with a crazy young student who killed himself after a scene with her, kept the baby, found love in another man, a violinist who is not able to rise her son. At 35, she finally finds love with a rich man who is not a great lover but it does not matter. However, her father is very sick. She joins him in province whereas her sister who's a drug addict cannot be at his bedside. In the meantime, the violinist is interned for depression in a psychiatric hospital. The actors are great. Probably the best Desplechin compared with the 3 hours long My Sexual life...

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/21/23

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Audience Member

Good film well written , well directed, great cast.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/26/23

Full Review

Audience Member

I was going to type up a lengthy review, but just have a look at Berardinelli's as he pretty much nailed it IMO. The movie itself is lengthy and drawn out and could have used some much tighter editing. Drinking a caffeinated beverage before watching is mandatory, lest the sandman will get you. I'd rate this as a bold, audacious, film, but a flawed one. A film that is not a total failure by any means, but still falls far short of being a great film. I give it a three out of five stars, and even that is being a bit generous.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/19/23

Full Review

Audience Member

One of the many joys and sadnesses of this necessarily long film are the way in which characters motivations and true feelings are gradually revealed as the film progresses, so that what starts out as a relatively straightforward drama becomes more complex, emotive and absorbing. Two skilled lead performances and two very different, flawed characters (but who basically both want escape) are at the centre of this compelling, funny, moving and truthful piece of cinema.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/22/23

Full Review

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Arnaud Desplechin

Director

Emmanuelle Devos

Nora Cotterelle

Mathieu Amalric

Ismaël Vuillard

Catherine Deneuve

Mme Vasset

Maurice Garrel

Louis Jenssens

Nathalie Boutefeu

Chloé Jenssens

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Synopsis

Shortly before her wedding, art gallery director Nora (Emmanuelle Devos) travels from Paris to Grenoble to visit her preteen son, Elias, who is spending time with her aging professor father, Louis (Maurice Garrel), recently diagnosed with terminal cancer. During her stay, she reaches out to her former lover, Ismael (Mathieu Amalric), a viola player and father figure to Elias who has been committed against his will to a mental hospital. Ismael, however, has his own problems to sort out.

Director: Arnaud Desplechin
Producer: Pascal Caucheteux
Screenwriter: Roger Bohbot, Arnaud Desplechin
Distributor: Wellspring Media
Production Co: France 2 Cinema, Why Not Productions
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Sep 3, 2004, Original
Rerelease Date (Theaters): May 13, 2005
Release Date (DVD): Nov 15, 2005
Box Office (Gross USA): $289.6K
Runtime: 2h 30m