Rois et reine

We don’t immediately find out that Nora (Emmanuelle Devos) and Ismaël (Mathieu Amalric) used to be married. Now they each live in their own worlds and have their own existential crises to deal with. While Nora is in Grenoble, heading for her third marriage, and trying to deal with the cancer diagnosis of her father Louis (Maurice Garrel), the hysterical Ismaël is sent to a psychiatric clinic in Paris against his will, where he reveals to the icy psychiatrist (Catherine Deneuve) that women have no souls and break dances during group therapy. The narrative only connects the duo’s paths loosely and sporadically. The dynamic camerawork is as unmoored as the characters, with jump cuts and abrupt shifts in tone just two of the tricks Deplechin pulls out of his cinematic cabinet of curiosities to tell a gripping story of family bonds pulled between good and evil. (bik)