Emmanuelle Devos will participate in a post-screening Q&A with journalist and film critic Paul Whittington.

Novel-like in structure as well as scope, Kings and Queen is an ingenious, sprawling chronicle of the seemingly discrete lives of Nora Cotterelle and Ismaël Vuillard, played by Desplechin favourites Emmanuelle Devos and Mathieu Amalric.

At the film’s outset, gallery-owner Nora returns home to visit her introverted son Elias, who is staying with her father, a respected scholar, and who, it transpires, is grievously ill. Meanwhile, viola player Ismaël is confronted by two nurses at his apartment set on committing him to a psychiatric ward against his will.

Complex, delighting in the absurd and replete with literary references, this is French cinema at its most enthralling. (AB)

Winner: Louis Delluc Prize 2004; Méliès Prize 2004
Best Actor Award, Mathieu Amalric: César Awards 2004

Director’s Note: By turns a burlesque comedy and psychological drama, this stylistic film has larger than life performances from Devos and Amalric.

This screening is in association with Alliance Française Dublin.

This film is screening as part of the Arnaud Desplechin Programme in the Carte Noire IFI French Film Festival (November 20th – December 1st, 2013).