Queen of Hearts

Actress Valerie Donzelli's directorial debut, Queen of Hearts is an unflinching (often overt) depiction of a heartbroken woman's desperate attempts at finding love in the big city and the end result is as hilarious as it is disturbing. Donzelli plays Adele, a depressed woman forced to live with her petulant cousin, Rachel (Beatrice De Stael), after she's dumped by her live-in boyfriend and left homeless. In an attempt to revive Adele from her social coma, which inexplicably prompts her to break into song, Rachel finds her cousin a job and encourages her to sleep with other men so she can move on from her breakup. It's during this time when Adele meets three different men (all played brilliantly by actor Jeremie Elkaim) who (save one) turn her world upside down. These men include Jacques, her unlikable and physically unavailable married employer; Paul, an emotionally unavailable man whose perversion is mistaken for passion; and Pierre, the kind and available younger man Adele should be with, yet always rejects. After watching the comical, sitcom-like prologue, viewers may be under the impression that they're in store for a goofy comedy. However, Queen of Hearts contains raw sexual and scatological humour, and the sex scenes throughout turn the viewer from observer to voyeur, which ironically only intensifies the quirky yet striking mise-en-scène. If you're a fan of Francois Ozon, Woody Allen and HBO's Girls, you will definitely get a kick out of Queen of Hearts, since it's the perfect antidote for any woman blaming her romantic failures on luck rather than the unfavourable choices she's making. The film also includes an 11-minute short dramedy entitled Luis And Marta Work Together.