''The King's Daughters'' () is a 2000

period drama A historical drama (also period drama, period piece or just period) is a dramatic work set in the past, usually used in the context of film and television, which presents history, historical events and characters with varying degrees of fiction s ...

film directed by

Patricia Mazuy Patricia Mazuy (; born 1960) is a French film director and screenwriter. Her film '' Peaux de vaches'' was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival. Eleven years later her film '' Saint-Cyr'' was screened in the ...

. It was screened in the

Un Certain Regard (; 'A Certain Glance') is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's official selection. It is run at the Debussy, parallel to the competition for the . This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob. The section presents 20 films with unusua ...

section at the

2000 Cannes Film Festival The 53rd Cannes Film Festival took place from 14 to 25 May 2000. French filmmaker Luc Besson was the Jury President for the main competition. Virginie Ledoyen was the mistress of ceremonies. Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier won the ''Palme d'Or'' ...

. It was adapted from the novel ''

La maison d’Esther LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second most populous city in the United States of America. La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music *La (musical note), or A, the sixth note *"L.A.", a song by Elliott Smit ...

'' by

Yves Dangerfield Yves may refer to: * Yves, Charente-Maritime, a commune of the Charente-Maritime department in France * ''Yves'' (single album), a single album by Loona * ''Yves'' (film), a 2019 French film People * Yves (given name), including a list of pe ...

Plot

In March 1685,

Louis XIV LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...

’s final wife

Madame de Maintenon Madame may refer to: * Madam, civility title or form of address for women, derived from the French * Madam (prostitution), a term for a woman who is engaged in the business of procuring prostitutes, usually the manager of a brothel * ''Madame'' ( ...

wishes to set up a boarding school for young daughters of noble families that have fallen on hard times, the

Maison royale de Saint-Louis The Maison Royale de Saint-Louis was a boarding school for girls set up on 15 June 1686 at Saint-Cyr (what is now the commune of Saint-Cyr-l'École, Yvelines) in France by King Louis XIV at the request of his second secret wife, Françoise d'Aubign ...

, a school where girls receive a pious but liberal education. The first difficulty is that the students from the provinces all speak different regional languages and dialects and the first task is to teach them all to speak a standardised Parisian French. After a few years of indifference, the school’s first aims prove impossible to attain. An important crisis arises from a performance by the students of an extract from '' Iphigenie'' by

Racine Jean-Baptiste Racine ( , ; ; 22 December 1639 – 21 April 1699) was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille, as well as an important literary figure in the Western tra ...

. This provokes too much passion among the actors and so Madame de Maintenon asks Racine to write her a play for her students that praises virtue – this proves to be ''

Esther Esther (; ), originally Hadassah (; ), is the eponymous heroine of the Book of Esther in the Hebrew Bible. According to the biblical narrative, which is set in the Achaemenid Empire, the Persian king Ahasuerus falls in love with Esther and ma ...

''. The students put on the new play and, when the king and his court attend the production, Madame de Maintenon realises that this had made the nobles of the court view her protégées as targets for seduction and marriage. Marriage proposals mount up and one nobleman even manages to break into the school. Madame de Maintenon decides to impose stricter rules and plunges into religion in an attempt to expiate her past. She asks an abbot to help her keep students on the right Christian moral path and keep them safe from the world. Instead of turning its students into an elite for the world outside, the school falls prey to realities, cuts itself off from reality and falls apart – the film ends with its final failure and closure.

Cast

Isabelle Huppert Isabelle Anne Madeleine Huppert (; born 16 March 1953) is a French actress. Known for her portrayals of cold, austere women devoid of morality, she is considered one of the greatest actresses of her generation. With 16 nominations and two win ...

Jean-Pierre Kalfon Jean-Pierre Kalfon (born 30 October 1938) is a French actor and singer. Selected filmography External links * 1938 births Living people French male film actors French male television actors Male actors from Paris French male stage a ...

as Louis XIV * Simon Reggiani as The Abbot *

Jean-François Balmer Jean-François Balmer (born 18 April 1946 in Valangin) is a Switzerland, Swiss actor. He has worked extensively in France, French Film, cinema, television and stage productions since the early 1970s. Theater Filmography Cinema Televisio ...

as Racine * Anne Marev as Madame de Brinon * Ingrid Heiderscheidt as Sylvine de la Maisonfort *

Nina Meurisse Nina Meurisse (born 14 November 1988) is a French actress. For her role in Souleymane's Story, she won the Cesar Award for Best Supporting Actress. Theater Filmography Cinema Television References External links * Livin ...

as Lucie de Fontenelle *

Morgane Moré Morgane may refer to: People * Morgane Dubled (born 1984), French supermodel * Morgane Tschiember (born 1976), artist * Morgane (born 1975), Belgian singer Other uses * ''Greta morgane'' (thick-tipped greta), a butterfly in the family Nymphalida ...

as Anne de Grandcamp *

Bernard Waver Bernard (''Bernhard'') is a French and West Germanic masculine given name. It has West Germanic origin and is also a surname. The name is attested from at least the 9th century. West Germanic ''Bernhard'' is composed from the two elements ''bern ...

as Gobelin *

Jérémie Renier (; born 6 January 1981) is a Belgian actor. His film debut was in 1992 at the age of 11 in a small Belgian film entitled "Les sept péchés capitaux (The Seven Deadly Sins)". He became better known to worldwide audiences in '' Brotherhood of ...

as François de Réans *

Jeanne Le Bigot Jeanne may refer to: Places * Jeanne (crater), on Venus People * Jeanne (given name) * Joan of Arc (Jeanne d'Arc, c.1412–1431), French folk heroine and saint * Jeanne Devos (religious sister) * Jeanne Devos (photographer) * Joan of Flanders, C ...

as Lucie (child) *

Mathilde Lechasles Mathilde is an alternative spelling of the names Matilde or Matilda, and could refer to: *Mathilde Dolgopol de Sáez (1901 –1957), Argentinian vertebrate paleontologist * Mathilde, Abbess of Essen (949–1011) * Mathilde Alanic (1864-1948), Fre ...

as Anne (child) * Alain Hinard as First soldier

Production

In December 2024, testifying before the French parliamentary inquiry commission on violence in cinema and audiovisual,

recounted the trauma she experienced while filming two controversial scenes in this movie at the age of 12.

Soundtrack

The film's score was composed by Welsh composer and former member of

the Velvet Underground The Velvet Underground were an American Rock music, rock band formed in New York City in 1964. Its classic lineup consisted of singer and guitarist Lou Reed, Welsh multi-instrumentalist John Cale, guitarist Sterling Morrison, and percussionis ...

John Cale John Davies Cale (born 9 March 1942) is a Welsh musician, composer, and record producer who was a founding member of the American rock band the Velvet Underground. Over his six-decade career, Cale has worked in various styles across rock, dr ...

. The score was arranged by Randy Wolf, and released as a soundtrack album.

References

External links