Queen to Play is a 2009 French-German film directed by Caroline Bottaro. The film is distributed in the U.S. by Zeitgeist Films

Zeitgeist Films

Zeitgeist Films is an American independent film distributor based in New York City founded in 1988 by co-Presidents Nancy Gerstman and Emily Russo. Films distributed by Zeitgeist are strongly auteur-driven by directors such as Christopher Nolan, Guy Maddin, Atom Egoyan, Todd Haynes, Nuri Bilge...

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Synopsis

The film stars Sandrine Bonnaire

Sandrine Bonnaire

Sandrine Bonnaire is a French actress, who has appeared in more than 40 films including Hollywood movies.Bonnaire was born in the town of Gannat, Allier, in the Auvergne region. She was born into a working-class family, the seventh of eleven children. Her acting career began at the age of 16 in...

 as a French chambermaid on the island of Corsica

Corsica

Corsica is an island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is located west of Italy, southeast of the French mainland, and north of the island of Sardinia....

. She develops an interest in chess

Chess

Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

. She has been cleaning the house of an American doctor (played by Kevin Kline

Kevin Kline

Kevin Delaney Kline is an American theatre, voice, film actor and comedian. He has won an Academy Award and two Tony Awards, and has been nominated for five Golden Globe Awards, two BAFTA Awards and an Emmy Award.- Early life :...

 in his first French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

-speaking role), and he begins helping her practice and improve. She must deal with her growing fascination with the game and with her husband and teenaged daughter.

Cast

• Sandrine Bonnaire
• Kevin Kline
• Valérie Lagrange
• Francis Renaud
• Alexandra Gentil
• Alice Pol
• Didier Ferrari
• Laurence Colussi
• Élisabeth Vitali
• Daniel Martin
• Dominic Gould
• Jennifer Beals

Awards

• 2010: Special Mention for John Schlesinger Award for Outstanding First Feature Palm Springs International Film Festival
  Palm Springs International Film Festival
  Palm Springs International Film Festival is a film festival held in Palm Springs, California. It was started in 1989 and is held annually in January...
  
  
• 2009: Official Selection Tribeca Film Festival
  Tribeca Film Festival
  The Tribeca Film Festival is a film festival founded in 2002 by Jane Rosenthal, Robert De Niro and Craig Hatkoff in a response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the consequent loss of vitality in the TriBeCa neighborhood in Lower Manhattan.The mission of the festival...
  
  

Release

The film had its world premiere on April 25, 2009 in both New York City and Los Angeles, at the Tribeca Film Festival

Tribeca Film Festival

The Tribeca Film Festival is a film festival founded in 2002 by Jane Rosenthal, Robert De Niro and Craig Hatkoff in a response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the consequent loss of vitality in the TriBeCa neighborhood in Lower Manhattan.The mission of the festival...

  and the ColCoa Film Festival

City of Lights, City of Angels

Founded in 1995, City of Lights, City of Angels is an annual film festival held in the United States which showcases the diversity of French cinema and promotes its talents among film professionals. The Festival is also open to the general public. All films shown during the festival have been...

  respectively. The film had a national release in France on August 5, 2009 and was set for release in Germany on January 7, 2010.

The film was released in the United States beginning April 1, 2011.

External links

• Queen To Play at Zeitgeist Films
• Queen To Play at Video Detective
• Joueuse at StudioCanal
• Variety.com review
• Interview with Caroline Bottaro on indieWIRE
• Queen To Play Goes to Zeitgeist Films for U.S. Distribution on indieWiRE
• Joueuse at HD Trailer