(already subscribe? log in).

Chess notes

THIS STORY APPEARED IN

February 06, 2012

“Queen to Play’’ is a 2009 French movie (“Joueuse’’) that was filmed in Corsica and released in theaters and on DVD last year. It is based on a novel, “The Woman Who Plays Chess,’’ and in our view a movie of extraordinary charm. Although it is about chess, it is a work that non-chess players will thoroughly understand both aesthetically and emotionally.

The central figure is Helene, played by French actress Sandrine Bonnaire, a housemaid who works for tourist hotels and private clients. She is in the beginning pinned down by her circumstances, a member of a lower class, but nevertheless a lady who accepts her lot. She has family problems, including a husband who is incessantly worrying about his job and perhaps does not have the intellectual curiosity of his wife. They have a conflicting, or semi-communicative, relationship. They also have a teenage daughter with the symptoms of her age; she is hostile and anxious to leave the island. The daughter had been caught up in a romance that apparently failed because of her lower class.

There is a turning point in Helene’s life, when, while changing bedclothes in a hotel, she notes two vacationing lovers on the balcony playing and enjoying a game of chess. The young lady appeared to be winning. Helene also works for an American doctor (played by Oscar winner Kevin Kline), a sort of introvert, who has lost his wife and is wrongly suspected by the locals of improper conduct to her. Helene finds a chess set in his house and asks (a la Eliza in Pygmalion) to be taught. The doctor concedes, naturally with unlimited doubt. Helene becomes obsessed with the game, finding chess patterns even in bread crumbs. Her husband refuses to play and suspects her of adultery with the doctor. However, he (along with the DVD viewer) finally realizes that where there is smoke there is a different kind of fire - chess.

Helene establishes dominance over the good doctor on the chessboard, and he realizes she has something not found in books, something inexplicable called talent. The movie follows her emerging chess career, as her friends and family are appalled by her new interest and neglect of work. This movie is not about chess, but about social mobility, persistence, and marvelous aspirations. It is supremely well acted. The close-up shots of Helene show a lady of patience and quality.