Sandrine Bonnaire Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Time really does fly. It has been thirteen years since Kevin Kline wooed Meg Ryan in French Kiss, where he got to play a theiving French man who could teach someone to pull out the complex flavors in wine in seconds. It's not Shakespeare, or storms of ice, but it has its moments. And now, he gets to play a French man for real -- in French! The Hollywood Reporter posts that Kline has signed on for his first French speaking role in Caroline Bottaro's drama Queen to Play (Joueuse).

This is the chess film I blogged about back in November, which focuses on "a hotel chambermaid who develops an obsession for chess." Bruno Ganz was attached, but now it looks like he is out. Instead, Klein will be rejoined by his Anniversary Party co-star Jennifer Beals, plus Sandrine Bonnaire and Francis Renaud. Bonnaire will play the chambermaid who is "captivated by a romantic couple (Beals and Renaud) playing chess while staying at the Mediterranean island hotel where she works. The doctor (Kline) whose house she cleans reluctantly becomes her mentor in the game, leading her to a chess tournament and initiating major transformations in her life."

I've tried to get into chess, and I'll probably try again. However, it's a bit challenging for those of us who like fast-paced games free of long lulls of silent thought, or who fire up Chessmaster just to get beat by 6-year-old beginner competitors. (I'm convinced that the makers of that game made the easy players kids to mock those of us who get into it late in the game.) Anyhow, you chess fans out there are about to get sexy, foreign chess on the big screen courtesy of writer Caroline Bottaro (C'est la vie).

Variety reports that she's going to make her directorial debut with a film called Joueuse, otherwise known as The Chess Player. Sandrine Bonnaire (Vagabond) who also starred in C'est la vie, and Bruno Ganz (Youth Without Youth) will star in the French-German co-production, which is about "a hotel chambermaid who develops an obsession for chess." Oh, the possibilities! This could be a racy tale of chess and hotels, since Ganz's role isn't mentioned. Instead of some bad guys, chases, and intrigue, they could bond over the smooth finish of the pawn before taking the queen, or king, so to speak. It could be about a crazy lady who leaves chess pieces throughout the hotel. Or, maybe something more Twin Peaksish.

The production got a nice bit of money, $700,000, from the German-French Film Funding Commission, but this is the only film that's received help. The same amount is going to Gaspar Noe's Enter the Void, and some money is also going to Ludi Boeken's Among Peasants.