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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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65
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59
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43
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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Kings and Queen
Universal acclaim
Based on 26 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 28 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Comedy | Drama | Foreign
Written by:
Roger Bohbot
Arnaud Desplechin
Directed by: Arnaud Desplechin
Release Date:
Theatrical: May 13, 2005
DVD: November 15, 2005
Running Time: 150 minutes, Color
Origin: France
Summary
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)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Esther Kahn
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
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...
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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
A remarkable though sometimes frustrating film.
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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >New York Post Kyle Smith
A long, messy cinematic novel full of hate, love, murder, ghosts, madness, poetry and Catherine Deneuve.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Variety Deborah Young
This enjoyable French pic welds together drama, melodrama and comedy.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
The kind of brainy human comedy that only this formidable French auteur seems capable of making.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
Arnaud Desplechin's sprawling drama exudes a go-for-broke determination that is frustrating and exhilarating.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein
Though overly long and difficult to digest, it's a feast you won't want to miss.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
At times compelling, at times devastating, and at times long-winded.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >The New Yorker David Denby
This movie, however incomplete and frustrating, is also fully alive and extraordinarily intelligent.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
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.
