Queen to Play 2009

    This film is based on the The Chess Player by Bertina Henrichs.  Helene is a middle-aged housekeeper at a posh Corsican hotel with and she has very few prospects.  She is a devoted and diligent wife and mother but she has nothing to call her own in her life except her family.  She watches a couple staying at the hotel playing chess on the deck and she is very interested.  She buys an electronic chessboard to give her husband for his birthday.  She tries to teach herself and tries to teach him but her husband doesn't like the game.  She cleans for an eccentric, reclusive American and she asks him to mentor her in the game.  Every Tuesday, Helene cleans for Kroger and they play chess.  Kroger is a reclusive American expat.  Their chess games transform both of their ho-hum lives.

    This is good, finding something she is very passionate about separates Helene from her family and they begin to resent the intrusion.  The townspeople begin to gossip about the time she spends with the American and this doesn't help her family feel better about her choices.  The scenery on the island of Corsica is very beautiful and colorful.  Not mentioned in this film is the fact that it usually takes years with many different chess partner to become a solid player?  This combination would also be needed to participate successfully in a tournament?  4* (I really liked this movie)

97 min, Drama directed by Caroline Bottaro with Sandrine Bonnaire, Francis Renaud, Jennifer Beals, Valerie Lagrange, Alexandra Gentil, Alice Pol, Elisabeth Vitali, Dominic Gould, Daniel Martin, Laurence Colussi, Didier Ferrari, Valerie Trejean, Francois Orsoni, Christine Ambrosini, Kevin Kline.

Note:  Imdb 6.9 out of 10, Roger Ebert 3 1/2*, Slant Magazine 2* out of 4* Andrew Schenker, Letterboxd 3.3* out of 5*, Amazon 6.9* out of 5* with 121 reviews.

Special Note:  Filmed in Corsica France.  The language is in French and English.  The original title was Joueuse and this is the feminine word for player.  Two minds playing a game of chess can engage each other and not in a romantic way.  It is the pure contact of their thinking.  Words are not in the mind during a chess game.  Just rules of spatial relationships.  

Awards:  Special Mention for John Schlesinger Award for Outstanding First Feature Palm Springs International Film Festival 2010 and Official Selection Tribeca Film Festival 2009.