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Kings and Queen
Wellspring Media


6.8

based on 26 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 28 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

Esther Kahn

MPAA RATING: Not Rated

Starring Emmanuelle Devos, Mathieu Amalric, Catherine Deneuve, Maurice Garrel, Nathalie Boutefeu, Jean-Paul Roussillon, Magalie Woch, and Hippolyte Girardot

This film expertly mixes comedy, tragedy and melodrama to tell the emotionally gripping story of the intersecting lives of two former lovers. (Wellspring Media)

GENRE(S):	Comedy \| Drama \| Foreign
WRITTEN BY:	Roger Bohbot Arnaud Desplechin
DIRECTED BY:	Arnaud Desplechin
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: November 15, 2005 Theatrical: May 13, 2005
RUNNING TIME:	150 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	France
LANGUAGE(S):	French (with English subtitles)

Original title "Rois et Reine"; Best Actor (Amalric), 2005 César Awards, France; Nominated, Golden Lion, 2004 Venice Film Festival

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

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.

100

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

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.

100

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Kings and Queen, full of passion and humor, madness and grief, is close to a masterpiece. It's like life: messy, impossible, elating, unavoidable.

100

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

Desplechin fearlessly dives into raw, bitter revelations and surfaces with hope as our heroes try again to get it right.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Gripping, highly original.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

A remarkable though sometimes frustrating film.

Chicago Reader Jim Healy

Arnaud Desplechin's best movie to date.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

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.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

He gives these characters the time to develop, to display their nuances, to establish their relationships with each other, to talk out their destinies.

New York Post Kyle Smith

A long, messy cinematic novel full of hate, love, murder, ghosts, madness, poetry and Catherine Deneuve.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

The film is a tower of literary and cinematic references, tangential yet somehow essential characters, and one fantastic performance after another. It's a simple movie yet is anything but.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

It is well-acted and written with a rigorous effort to skirt cliche, and it has the savor of real life throughout.

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

Both these stories, which of course develop further, are more engaging than they may sound, because Desplechin directs them so intelligently and because they are so well acted.

Empire David Parkinson

A true emotional epic.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Odd, complex and charming.

Variety Deborah Young

This enjoyable French pic welds together drama, melodrama and comedy.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

A complex, boldly experimental movie plotted like a thriller and paced like a farce, Kings and Queen is category-defying film that's as smart and emotionally resonant as it is entertaining.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

For all its hectic comings and goings, though, Kings & Queen is superbly controlled, gracefully shot and edited, and, for its entire 150 minutes, as engrossing as its meanings are opaque.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

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.

TV Guide Ken Fox

The kind of brainy human comedy that only this formidable French auteur seems capable of making.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Arnaud Desplechin's sprawling drama exudes a go-for-broke determination that is frustrating and exhilarating.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

A film that unfolds like a court case in which all of the testimony sounds like the simple truth, and none of it agrees.

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

Though overly long and difficult to digest, it's a feast you won't want to miss.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

At times compelling, at times devastating, and at times long-winded.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Though frequently dazzling, Kings And Queen proves that a bunch of punchy singles don't necessarily make an album.

The New Yorker David Denby

This movie, however incomplete and frustrating, is also fully alive and extraordinarily intelligent.

The average user rating for this movie is 6.8 (out of 10) based on 28 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Joe J. gave it a7:
A little too messy, and despite the devastating reversals, still too sentimental. I looked over Andrew O'Hehir's review after watching this, curious to see why someone could love it so much. It's clear the man is completely infatuated with the lead actress. "We bow to her superiority, yearn for her destruction and marvel at her resiliency..." ??? Well, Andy does, but not me. I thought Mathieu Amalric's character was far more interesting - he starts out as an annoying, arrogant flake but matures a great deal throughout the picture. Not bad, but overrated.

Timothy D. gave it a4:
A major disappointment -- fatally overlong and grossly melodramatic. I give it a 4 instead of a 1 because of the work of the actorrs, who are this film's saving grace.

Charles M. Jr gave it a5:
I purchased this move based on the high score from critics. Mistake! Halfway into this film, it became unwatchable. I wanted to enjoy it but came away feeling let down. There were moments of good drama and some funny scenes but overall it seemed to lack a cohesive storyline and became a disjointed movie. Definitely not on par with some good French cinema.

claire gave it a10:
Sublime acting. each scene was such a gem.

Goran gave it a10:
A unique, energetic, shape-shifting masterpiece - any time you think you're about to get a comfortable handle on it, it peels back a layer. For every second of its two and a half hours, it kept me glued to my seat (and it was a particularly exhausting day). The entire cast is wonderful (though Emmanuelle Devos is clearly rising to Goddess status now) and there's too many wonderfully imaginative scenes to name here - but I particularly loved the dream sequences, the dead father's revelation and the convenience store robbery. It's a bizarrely funny, profoundly moving, great great picture.

Anton K. gave it a10:
Fantastic, multi layered complex film. full of emotion. superb performances.

Mary C gave it a1:
A precious few moments of real emotion, but mostly an overwrought, rambling mess of inconsistent characters with incomprehensible motivations that was neither touching nor funny. As to the reviewers--I think the emperor has no clothes.

Kings and Queen Wellspring Media

Kings and Queen
Wellspring Media