QUEEN TO PLAY – The Review

Caroline Bottaro’s film, Queen to Play is a graceful film exploring one woman’s unexpected passion for the medium of chess.  Set in the scenic countryside of Corsica, the film is cinematographically arresting with long panning shots of the mountains and seaside accompanied by an intriguing musical score.  Much like its main character, the film is quiet, thoughtful and perceptive.

Sandrine Bonnaire, plays Hélène, a woman working as a chambermaid in order to help make ends meet for her husband (played by Francis Renaud) and teenaged daughter (played by Alexandra Gentil).  It is during one of her room checks at a local inn that she first witnesses a missing element in her life: passion.  In attending to her cleaning, she can’t help but be mesmerized by an attractive couple kissing and playing chess together on a balcony.  Inspired by their passionate display of affection, she stops in at her husband’s place of work.  Preoccupied by his own work and surprised at his wife’s presence, her husband, Ange, gives her a less than romantic welcome.  It is arguably this unsatisfying encounter with her husband that cements a newfound resolve within Helene to seek her ulterior personal fulfillment.

Due to her new desire to learn chess, sparked initially by the glamorous and passionate couple she witnessed on the balcony, Hélène purchases an electronic chessboard for her husband on his birthday.  Her husband is not altogether pleased with his gift and publicly makes a scene about how much she spent on something so unnecessary.  After first inviting her husband to learn chess with her, she ultimately perseveres on her own in attempting to master the game.

Spending all hours of the night reading the rules and playing against herself, she only gets so far. Hélène discovers that one of the clients for whom she cleans, a widowed Ex-Pat American, Dr. Kröger (played by Kevin Kline), not only has a real chessboard, but also is in fact quite proficient at the game himself.  In her understated, though determined, manner, Hélène offers to exchange her cleaning services for chess lessons.  Reluctantly, a first lesson is arranged.  As their relationship grows both Hélène and Dr. Kröger are challenged by each other in unexpected ways.

Enraptured by this new interest, Hélène increasingly spends all hours of the night and any spare time during her day practicing chess.  Thinking of little else, her typically fastidious attention to detail at work is replaced by daydreams of moves and plays.  Advancing under the tutelage of Dr. Kröger, her knowledge of the game, and of life, causes her to frustratingly remark that “the more I learn, the less I understand.”

Her unavailability begins to aggravate and cause tension between her and her husband and daughter.  As she becomes increasingly masterful at the game, her growing number of late nights at Dr. Kröger’s leave her husband and daughter to fend for dinner them selves and sparks gossip among the community.  Following his wife to work, in order to see for himself what she and Dr. Kröger are up to, he witnesses the two of them deeply engrossed in a game of chess.

In a desperate effort to exert his own power over his wife, drunk and angry, Ange makes unwanted, aggressive physical advances on Helene.  Following this, Helene throws out the chessboard and cancels her lessons with Dr. Kröger.  It is in this time of need that Helene’s daughter rises to her mother’s defense and provides her with the affirmation and encouragement she needs.

Despite his dissenting attitude and abusive behavior, Helene is willing to forgive her husband and he in turn is willing to do his part in working towards rebuilding their relationship.  In Ange, as with the other characters of the film, Writer/Director Bottaro admirably creates a nuanced and complicated character worthy of the audience’s sympathy.  While the relationship between Ange and Helene is imperfect, the relationship between Helene and Dr. Kröger is surreal.

Admitted to the highest-level chess competition, Helene is a pawn no longer.  Discovering passion, Helene has moved from a compliant chambermaid to an assertive chess player.   As she expressively muses: “Part of chess’s appeal, is the way each piece moves differently…The queen is the most powerful piece.”

So as not to spoil the ending, lets just say Bottero leaves the viewer in a typically French fashion, with a kiss and a wave.

OVERALL RATING: THREE AND A HALF STARS OUT OF FIVE