Palais royal! (2005)
No stats available
Directors
Cast
Valérie Lemercier, Lambert Wilson, Catherine Deneuve, Gisèle Casadesus, Michel Aumont, Mathilde Seigner, Denis Podalydès, Michel Vuillermoz, Gilbert Melki, Pierre Vernier, Michel Fortin, Chick Ortega, Maurane
After a king’s death unexpectedly makes her husband the heir, a gentle speech therapist must adapt to the demands of royal life.
The story
King André’s death in a helicopter crash throws the royal succession into turmoil. An old medieval charter prevents his eldest son, Prince Alban, from inheriting because he is unmarried and childless, leaving the crown to his younger brother Arnaud, a carefree prince married to Armelle, a speech therapist with simple habits. Suddenly expected to become queen, Armelle must abandon her practice and patients and take on the rigid protocol and constant public duties of royal life. Reserved and kind by nature, she struggles with her new role as the media’s attention intensifies and her mother-in-law proves harsh.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
National mourning: King André, much loved by his subjects, dies in a helicopter crash. This tragedy is set to upend the life of Armelle, a speech therapist with simple habits and the wife of Arnaud, the king’s younger son, a carefree and unfaithful prince. Queen Eugénia, with the help of Grand Chamberlain René-Guy, unearths an old medieval charter that bars Prince Alban, the king’s eldest son and heir, from succeeding to the throne on the grounds that he is still unmarried and childless. Though ill-prepared, Arnaud is therefore called upon to ascend the throne, and Armelle must leave her practice and patients overnight to submit to the obligations imposed by her new status. Kind and helpful by nature but reserved, the soon-to-be queen struggles to conform to the rigid protocol and constant public duties expected of her. The excessive media attention now surrounding her family, her mother-in-law’s harshness, the discovery of her husband’s adultery, and an ill-timed cake-in-the-face prank eventually take a brutal toll. The gentle Armelle gradually turns into a devious, manipulative princess whose sole obsession is to do everything she can to harm the royal family.
Genres
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
Your lists
Loading your lists…