Keswick Film Club - Kings and Queen

Synopsis

Teeming with life, art, myth and madness, Desplechin's film is a careering modern relationships melodrama that undercuts the usual routines of French chamber cinema with left turns into ghost story, bedlam burlesque, cornershop shootout and even a madcap rap moonwalk.

The film knocks between two ex-lovers Nora and Ismael, whose lives have taken paths nearly as divergent as their outlooks on them. A jitterbug web of recriminations, wrong-footing revelations and the odd reconciliation, the film is enrapturing to watch, full of appositely grandstanding performances and tumbling improvisatory technique. Majestic movie-making

Nick Bradshaw, Time Out