Queen to Play

Hélène works as a housekeeper at a hotel on Corsica and looks after her husband Ange and daughter Lisa, her own interests set aside. One day she happens to see a couple absorbed in a game of chess, and the sight stays with her. She starts to learn the game herself, a pursuit her family greets with confusion and growing suspicion, especially once she begins taking lessons from Dr. Kröger, an American expatriate staying at the hotel.

Caroline Bottaro directed and wrote the screenplay, with Dominique Besnehard, Michel Feller and Amelie Latscha producing. Sandrine Bonnaire plays Hélène, Kevin Kline plays Kröger, and Francis Renaud, Jennifer Beals, Valérie Lagrange and Alexandra Gentil appear as Ange, L'Américaine, Maria and Lisa. The film runs 101 minutes and was released in 2009. Its worldwide box office reached about 1 million dollars.

The film holds a rating of 6.6 out of 10 on TMDB from 75 votes, while critics gave it 6.4 out of 10 across 40 reviews, placing the two roughly in line with each other.