Study the sad, beautiful face of Sandrine Bonnaire: the angular jaw, the dark eyebrows over even darker eyes, the habitual downcast look that brightens when some small triumph activates a smile. Grow accustomed to Bonnaire: She’s in nearly every scene of director Caroline Bottaro’s film about a cleaning lady who becomes fixated on learning to play chess. Is it romance? Self-assertion? Breaking through the barriers of social class? Whatever her motive, she’s willing to neglect her marriage, friendships and job just to learn more about people’s passion for chess. Bonnaire cleans house for a reclusive professor (Kevin Kline) who reluctantly takes her on as his protégé. Almost without words, scarcely ever touching, they enact the thrust and parry and counterthrust of chess, the quiet scheming to push your partner into risks she’s never taken before, the tense build-up before the penetration of defenses and sweet release of checkmate. (Anybody need a cigarette?) As bonuses, you get a mysterious, sensual cameo by Jennifer Beals; Kline speaking in French; and as backdrop, the plunging cliffs and seascapes of Corsica. (France | 97 mins) Read our story about this