Rois & reine. Dir. Arnaud Desplechin (2004)

Nathalie CROUAU

Allusion (implicit)


1. Film data

Rois & reine

 


English Synopsis

Nora Cotterelle (Emmanuelle Devos) is struggling to care for her father (Maurice Garrel), who suffers from digestive ailments. Though she keeps up appearances, her personal life is a shambles: she is twice-divorced, the father of her son is dead, and though she is engaged to a businessman (Olivier Rabourdin), her relationship with him is rocky. Moreover, her son Elias (Valentin Lelong) is autistic, and the stressors in his mother’s life exacerbate his behavioural problems and cause him to become increasingly withdrawn. Ismaël Vuillard (Mathieu Amalric) is Nora’s second husband. He is something of an eccentric, and as a result, he is wrongfully committed to a psychiatric institution, where he meets an intriguing patient called Arielle (Magali Woch). When Nora learns that her father’s stomach issues are really caused by terminal cancer, she approaches Ismaël and asks him to adopt her son. He is unsure if he is willing to become a father figure to Elias: after all, there is still the matter of escaping from the psychiatric ward…


3. Analysis

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