The King's Daughters

Saint-Cyr

Belgium, France

2000

119 Min

Color

1.85:1

French

Currently 3.4/5 Stars.
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SCR Yves Thomas, Patricia Mazuy

CAST Isabelle Huppert, Jean-Pierre Kalfon, Jean-François Balmer, Jérémie Renier, Simon Reggiani, Anne Marev, Ingrid Heiderscheidt, Nina Meurisse, Morgane Moré, Bernard Waver

PROD DES Thierry François, François Decaux

SOUND Henri Morelle

Cannes (Un Certain Regard): Prix de la jeunesse, Karlovy Vary (The French Woman and Love), Mar del Plata (Out of Competition), San Sebastián (Cutting Edge of French Cinema)

Synopsis

France, early 18th Century. Louis the 14th is king. Madame de Maintenon has founded Saint-Cyr, a boarding school outside of Paris for the daughters of destitute nobility. Girls of all ages are gathered throughout the kingdom and brought here to acquire the language and manners befitting to their rank. For Madame de Maintenon, what begins as an amusing and heart-warming form of cultural charity will, over the years, become a source of nightmarish anxiety and eventually religious fanaticism.

When the blooming young women present the court with a play written for them by Racine, Saint-Cyr is brought to the attention of the king’s entourage of rapacious young men in need of “fresh blood”. The ensuing wave of wedding proposals only serves to exacerbate the growing sensual tension of adolescence that is wreaking havoc in Saint-Cyr. As a result, Madame de Maintenon turns to father Godet des Marais, an uncompromising Lazarist priest, who shrouds Saint-Cyr in a cloak of disciplinarian asceticism. But will it ultimately bring Madame de Maintenon and her girls salvation or damnation?

Director

Patricia Mazuy

Born in 1960 in Dijon. Patricia Mazuy was a student at HEC (International Business School) when she decided to become a filmmaker. During the eighty’s, she directed several short films, which she funded herself. In 1982, she met Agnès Varda in Los Angeles who offered her to work as an intern editor for Jacques Demy’s film, Une CHAMBRE EN VILLE (A ROOM IN TOWN). Following this experience, she worked as an editor on various films, including SANS TOÎT NI LOI by Agnès Varda (1985) starring Sandrine Bonnaire. In 1988, she directed her first feature film, PEAUX DE VACHES (1988), which was acclaimed by the critic and nominated for the César award for Best First Film. In 2000, SAINT-CYR, starring Isabelle Huppert was selected for Official competition at Cannes and obtained the Jean Vigo Prize. In 2003, she and her partner, Simon Reggiani made a singular film, BASSE NORMANDIE, which mixes documentary and fiction and was released in 2004. Her last feature film, SPORT DE FILLES (2011) was screened… read more