This marvelously unpredictable tragicomedy concerns the lovely, rather enigmatic Nora and the constellation of males circling her: aging father, young son and former flame. “If there’s a more humane, joyous, tragic, life-affirming movie to be found at the moment, I’m not aware of it.” — LA Weekly
Screened as part of NZIFF 2005
Kings and Queen 2004
Rois et reine
This marvelously unpredictable tragicomedy from the writer/director of My Sex Life… concerns the lovely, rather enigmatic Nora (Emmanuelle Devos) and the constellation of males circling her: aging father, young son and former flame, Ismaël, played by a hilariously hotheaded Mathieu Amalric. The film’s structure is amazingly free-wheeling, as if it’s tugged in unexpected directions by the director’s discoveries about his characters.
“This is an explosive, funny, tragic, challenging and constantly surprising movie that seems to encompass all genres… I was so wrapped up in its world of love and betrayal and madness, its story of a pampered belle and a man crumbling into insanity in a trashed apartment and the skein of invisible threads connecting them, that when it ended I didn't want to leave… With all his artifice, his prodigious narrative risks and seemingly undisciplined mélange of styles and tones, Desplechin has made a film that feels more like real life than anything I've seen in years, from any source. It's a masterpiece. ” — Andrew O’Hehir, salon.com