Queen To Play

When we first meet Helene (Sandrine Bonnaire), the provincial French housewife and hotel maid at the center of director Caroline Bottaro’s drama Queen to Play, she seems almost scrubbed clean to the point of androgyny -- hair pulled back tightly behind her head, dowdy clothes, no makeup -- homeliness on every level. The sense of restraint in her aura is unmistakable, and that extends to her inner emotional life. She’s all bottled up, tightly wound, and well out of touch with any inner longings -- so much so that when a dissatisfied co-worker asks her, “Didn’t you ever want to leave [and go somewhere else]?” Helene responds unassumingly, “I don’t know, I never ...