Queen to Play

Works for Me
I like films where the main character experiences a self awakening. My guess is a lot of Americans (particularly now) feel like they're just plugged into the wall. They grind it out day to day and look for whatever little time they can to find some peaceful corner to do something that means something to them. This is one of those films.

Sandrine Bonnaire and her husband live, with their teenage daughter, on an Island off of the French mainland. They are both laborers. They eke out a living but not much more. While working as a maid in a hotel, she sees a young, in love, couple absorbed in a game of chess. It somehow captures her imagination and she convinces a local doctor (Kevin Klein) to teach her to play. This leads to her personal adventure.

This is a heck of a movie. Kevin Klein does his usual good job but this movie belongs to Sandrine. She is great. Her face runs through so many subtle expressions throughout the film that I was simply riveted. During much...

Playing to win
Viewed inflight on Turkish Airlines. Our heroine is an unfulfilled housewife/cleaner who becomes empowered through her discovery of chess. Intrigued by the game but without knowing how to play, she soon learns that the Queen is the most powerful piece. This discovery becomes a metaphor for her own self realisation as she perseveres to learn and takes on what is unfortunately still a male province ( most chess clubs such as mine in Guildford UK have few if any women members). Although chess is featured throughout the movie, knowledge of the game itself is not required of the viewer - although chess enthusiasts will immediately identify with magical as well as the cerebral and competetive nature of the game. This is a really nice film - and if it inspires anyone to take up the game itself, that would be great.

Very Nice
I saw this film at the Palm Springs Film Festival and it is a wonderful interplay of human romantic emotions and inner ambition to escape the mundane, all evolving around the game of chess. The acting was superb and the scenery unique of the Mediterranean.

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