Cheap Queen Margot (La Reine Margot) (DVD) (Isabelle Adjani, Daniel Auteuil, Jean-Hugues Anglade, Vincent Perez, Virna Lisi) (Patrice Chéreau) Price

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Customer Reviews of Queen Margot (La Reine Margot)

Queen Margot (Adjani) was a real person who was forced to marry the Spanish prince who became Henri IV (Daniel Auteil). Henri was from the Bourbon branch of the French family and on the day of his marriage to Margot, he converted to Catholicism. It was he who said, "Paris is worth a Mass."

Margot did not love Henri, and eventually he divorced her for her wanton ways and married Marie who is well remembered as his wife and widow and a co-ruler of France. While she was married to Henri, Margot is reputed to have been involved with many men. This story is a tale of the times from her perspective and reveals her affair with an ordinary soldier who happened to be in Paris the day Protestant Huguenots were massacred, and whom she saved from a vicious mob--according to this part of the story which may be fictionalize to some extent.

This is a passionate film, and years later memory bubbles of some of the more dramtic scenes pop into my mind. I am happy to see it out on DVD at last.

Stunning and Passionate
Queen Margot relates the events preceding and following the notorious St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre (August 24, 1572). France is gripped with skirmishes between Roman Catholics and Protestants (Huguenots), leading to the doomed marriage between the royals, Catholic Margot (Adjani) and the Protestant King of Navarre, Henri (Auteuil). Following the wedding, Margot's mother, Queen Catherine de Medici, wages a Protestant slaughter in the streets of Paris and imprisons Margot and Henri. This epic history is used as a backdrop to tell the more intimate story of the coalition between Margot and her husband, as well as her relationship with her Protestant lover (Vincent Perez).

The acting, costumes, and cinematography are all first-rate. Accordingly, the movie received an Oscar nomination for best costume design, and it won 5 Cesars (the French equivalent of the Oscar), including best actress for Adjani. The director (Patrice Chéreau) succeeds brilliantly because he manages to make the film urgent, unlike most historical dramas, by focusing on the passion involved in the characters' lives. Queen Margot is also surprisingly bloody and realistic for such a picture, and the slaughter is depicted rather graphically. The only debit of the film is the overly complex and sometimes confusing political machinations that drive the narrative. However, the confused viewer should not worry about the details and enjoy the overall feel and emotion of the film. Highly recommended.

history with healthy doses of lust, intrigue, & brutality
From a story by Alexander Dumas, the famous nineteenth century Afro-French writer (Count of Monte Cristo, Man in the Iron Mask, Three Musketeers, etc). I actually came upon this film only because it had Jean-Hughes Anglade from Nikita and Killing Zoe. He is wonderful but the real scene stealer is Isabelle Adjani! You would never have noticed that she was well over 38 years old when then film was made, she looks so much better than she did 16 years earlier in Herzog's Nosferatu remake. Adjani is absolutely captivating, she has a screen presence that can only be compared to the likes of Ingrid Bergman or Gong Li. If you really like her, check out Camille Claudel which is probably her only other really good film.

La Reine Margot is a luscious political adventure set around the event of the terrible true-to-life St. Bartholomew's Day massacre of 1572. The supporting cast, including Anglade as Charles IX, and Vincent Perez as Adjani's lover La Mole, is consistently superb. If you haven't seen this, you are definitely missing out. La Reine Margot probably helped to influence the similar medieval themed queen epics Elizabeth (1998, UK) and Suriyothai (2001, Thailand), both of which should definitely be checked out if you enjoyed this one. One of the best films of the 1990s.