Monsieur Blake zu Diensten

John Malkovich shot the movie in French. Despite being fluent in French it was a challenge to learn so much French dialogue, and he worked with a coach, the director's daughter.

Mr Blake is obviously a very intelligent man, and fond of playing chess. However the improper backwards set up of the chess board is obvious. Unfortunately the chess board was incorrectly set up, so that the bottom-right square is black.

Unfortunately as a consequence, the black queen and king plus the white queen and king are all on the wrong starting squares. No one ever plays the game of chess with the bottom-right square as black, because then all the kings and queens would then be incorrectly placed on the wrong color starting squares. How to set up the pieces on a chess board: First set up the board so that the bottom-right square is white . . . Place a rook on each of your two corners . . . Place the knights next to the rooks . . . Place the bishops to the inside of the knights . . . Place the queen on the remaining, matching-color square . . .