VIFF 2009 | Queen To Play at Schema : more than ethnic

VIFF 2009 | Queen To Play

Queen to Play
France, 2009, 101min
DIR Caroline Bottaro

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In this frothy French flick, director Caroline Bottaro introduces us to the game of chess like we've never seen it before: as empowering, titillating, and downright kinky.

At the beginning of the film, we met Helene (Sandrine Bonnaire), a self-effacing and downtrodden cleaning lady who works to support her husband and daughter on the island of Corsica. One morning, Hélène witnesses a couple engaged in a steamy game of chess-as-foreplay. The gaze of the camera lingers on the female chess player (Jennifer Beals) who dazzles Helene with her teeming sexuality.

Helene tries to fire up her own lackluster and lack-lust marriage by trying to get her husband interested in the game of chess - but he ain't having it. Instead, Helene persuades Dr. Kroger (Kevin Kline) - a scowling Byronic hero type whose house she cleans - to teach her the basics. As she gets increasingly passionate about chess, the game becomes a source of empowerment; she comes to see herself as beautiful and powerful, like the queen, which Kroger teaches her, is "the most powerful piece in the game." Initially, Helene's evolving sense of self elicits jealousy from her husband and embarrassment from her daughter, but, by the time she competes in a local chess tournament, nobody in town can help but be inspired by this lower-class woman's climb towards royalty.

Despite some heavy-handed moments (Helene, on an isolated beach, screaming out into the ocean) and dips into overly-significant symbolism (Helene, queen-in-the-making, clutching that same piece in her hand like a talisman), this film presents a creative spin on the classic "woman's struggle for power" storyline. It capitalizes on the aura of intellectualism associated with chess to show how the cultivation of one's intellectual life can lead to the enhancement of one's sensuality. In other words, it presents the life of the mind as a gateway to the life of the body - a unique approach to the question of women's empowerment, and of power generally.

While Kline's performance in this film is somewhat unconvincing, Bonnaire pulls off the role of caterpillar-turned-butterfly with grace and skill, making this film well worth seeing.

If you like board games, Bobby Fischer, or Cinderella stories with an intellectual twist, then I'd definitely recommend Queen to Play. After all, where else will you ever get a chance to see chess fetishized this way?

Schema Magazine's coverage of VIFF 2009 is sponsored by the Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival