Young Queen Margot finds herself trapped in an arranged marriage amidst a religious war between French Catholics and Protestants. Six days after her wedding, La Môle, a young man wounded by several sword injuries, frantically knocks on Margots door. He is protestant and must die like all the others, but Margot hides him, nurses him back to health and grows to love him. The late Patrice Chéreau’s high octane adaptation of the Alexandre Dumas novel begins in fth gear and never lets up, plunging in hip-deep in history and into a dizzying array of characters, with assionate performances and a riveting, horric staging of the Massacre.
The historical novel by Alexandre Dumas was adapted for the screen with this lavish French epic, winner of 5 Césars and a pair of awards at the Cannes Film Festival. Isabelle Adjani stars as Marguerite de Valois, better known as Margot, daughter of scheming Catholic power player Catherine de Medici (Virna Lisi). Margot is an heiress to the throne during the late 16th century reign of the neurotic, hypochondriac King Charles IX (Jean-Hugues Anglade), a time when Protestants and Catholics are vying for political control of France. Catherine decides to make an overture of good will by offering up Margot in marriage to prominent Protestant Huguenot Henri of Navarre (Daniel Auteuil), although she also schemes to bring about the notorious St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre of 1572, when tens of thousands of Protestants are slaughtered. The marriage goes forward but Margot doesn’t love Henri and takes a lover, the soldier La Mole (Vincent Perez), also a Protestant from a well-to-do family. Murders by poisoning follow, as court intrigues multiply and Catherine’s villainous plotting to place her son Anjou (Pascal Greggory) on the throne threatens the lives of La Mole, Margot and Henri. The American release version was cut to 145 minutes. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi
In French with English subtitles.
Starring Isabelle Adjani, Daniel Auteuil, Jean-Hugues Anglade, Vincent Perez, Virna Lisi.
Note: “Queen Margot” is rated R. It includes full frontal nudity, sexual situations, much violence and several horrible deaths.