Die Schachspielerin

"Queen to Play" is a sweet, small, powerful film about a cleaning woman's discovery of passion and dignity through chess. Sandrine Bonnaire plays Helene, a 40 something cleaning woman on the tourist island of Corsica. She's got a nice, handsome, construction worker husband, a snotty teenage daughter struggling through growing pains, an imperious boss at a resort hotel, and a quiet, reasonable, low-rent life.

One day Helene picks up the game of chess, and everything changes. Chess engages her mind and passion. For the sake of learning more about the game, she does things she never would have done, otherwise. She asks a man she cleans for, Dr. Kroger (Kevin Kline) to play with her. The grouchy older man rebuffs her at first, but she offers to clean for free, and he accepts. "Do you always look at people as if your life depended on their answer to your question?" Dr. Kroger asks her.

In fact Helene's life does depend on her newfound passion for chess. Helene demands time to learn about the game. She is distracted in conversations were before she might have listened more sympathetically or joined in petty, local gossip. She schedules hours alone with a man. She answers back to demanding customers at the resort. She snaps at her family, "Would it kill you to cook your own dinner for one night?" Just who does Helene think she is? She is, after all, only a cleaning woman, the chess club president reminds her. His arrogance will not serve him well when he butts up against Helene.

"Queen to Play" is a small film. The script is spare. The film is lovely but not spectacular. Sandrine Bonnaire's great beauty and her performance are its best special effect. I wish there had been a bit more depth and development. But what is here is really powerful. We've gotten so used, in the US, to thinking of injustice and prejudice as being, primarily, about black versus white. "Queen to Play" shows how being a cleaning woman is itself a handicap in society, how expectations can squash a human being, and the price people pay for even the most simple gesture of coloring outside the lines of others' expectations. I admire and like Helene as I do few other film heroines. And I'd love to see Bonnaire play a saint someday. Her face is made for it.

Hélène is "a simple housemaid", living a very modest life with her husband and daughter, who both take her for granted. One day, after watching a couple play chess in idyllic conditions, she decides to learn how to play.

Throughout the film, chess is very much a symbol for Hélène aspiring to more in life. At one point, while trying to teach her husband how to play, her eyes light up as she says "La dame est la pièce la plus forte... c'est fou hein?" which could be roughly translated as "The queen is the strongest piece on the board... crazy, huh?".

This single sentence seems to encapsulate the whole state of mind of our protagonist. On one hand, the idea that she could accomplish anything, even be great or the best at anything seems far-fetched to her, yet terribly enticing. She is on a journey towards self-realization that is both exciting and a little scary to Hélène and those around her.

Sandrine Bonnaire is absolutely amazing as usual, and succeeds in showing the state of mind of her character in very few words. Kevin Kline is great as well playing Dr. Kröger, the man who teaches chess to Hélène and develops an unusual and complex bound with her. There are lots of nuances in their relationship and again, in few words, we as viewers can sense a lot is going on. Tension, attraction, challenges.

Caroline Bottaro's direction captures very well Hélène's modest and quiet life and the implicit contrasts between social classes.

I recommend this movie. If you are not convinced yet, give Guy Bellinger's review (here on IMDb) a read.

There are movies about baseball and swimming and even pool and poker. This one is about chess. And it is a superb film, one of the few I've rated ten. Where to start? The rich photography and the stunning scenery? The captivating, believable characters? The subtleties that Europe does so well but Hollywood doesn't even understand? Perhaps the thing I liked best was the wonderful facial expressions. Anyone can learn a line. It takes much more talent to convey a story with a raised eyebrow, a cunning smile, an expression of shocked surprise. The movie is a winner even if you don't know the difference betaken a pawn and a rook. But if you play chess and understand its culture, it is especially engaging. Chess is wrongly regarded as a slow and boring game. Here it has the excitement of a bobsled run. Just a heluva great movie!

This may be the best chess movie i have watched, and i watch any I can find.

--The original title to this movie is Joueuse, the feminine form of "player", which say a lot about the movie

--I think Joueuse and 'Queen to play' says it all, it has wheels within wheels regarding a woman's traditional role VS wanting more out of life without losing those things you originally love

--The makers of this movie also manage to incorporate the primary attributes a great chess player has in their character, and they do this in such a way that blends them seamlessly into the movie.

I know there are some chess movies that are 'based on true events', but if a viewer does the research, they will find that the actual facts are so far removed from the actual story, that it may as well be fiction

I found this movie to have multiple layers to it - like real life

Several reviewers who rated this movie at 8 to 10 stars here have expressed what I thought about the movie, and I salute their observations and clarity.

Watching French films is a solitary pleasure in my household, I'm the only one, so only rarely do I get to see one, subtitles and all. This was a fun one, especially for chess players like me.

I recall Amelie, Red, White, Blue, and a few others. One thing seems consistent: French movies describe struggle but almost never resolution. Joueuse ends unresolved, right? What finally happens? You get to wonder. But that's fun, too!

Especially enjoyable is sampling the way the people live. She lives in a small apartment; she rides a bicycle downhill to work. Amenities are few; even the luxuries in the homes are basic, traditional.

I was guessing the setting was Corsica because the characters refer to going to the "mainlaind." The film definitely transports you to a different world from suburban U. S.

Kevin Kline is just a superb actor, you wouldn't know he isn't French. Sandrine Bonnaire so wonderfully embodies Helene. As some other reviewers noticed -- the facial expressions of these two characters and others (the husband and daughter, for examples) are so marvelously nuanced. When you're relying upon subtitles, the facial expressions and body language convey the overtones and subtleties that the words on the screen just can't.

Enjoy this film! I'm going to watch it again!