It is movies like these that makes me admire foreign cinema and not the glossed over American crap that has been bombarding the industry of late.
Picture this: 1572. France is on the brink of civil war, and as a seeming last-ditch attempt to reconcile the Catholic and Protestant populations, scheming Catherine de Medici forcibly marries her daughter off to Henri de Bourbon, however, she instrumentates the St. Bartholemew's Day massacre to eliminate France's Protestants with disasterous results. During the confrontation, Margot saves several Protestants along with her husband and the mysterious La Môle, a Protestant spy, and therefore her enemy, from death, only to fall in love with him. Amongst this, de Medici and her son Henry II start to unfurl a plot for Henry to take the throne with de Medici herself behind the curtain.
The reluctant bride
This film, for all of it's lavishness is extraordinarily brutal and it shows by Patrice Chéreau's skill as a director as well as from her cast and crew. During the pivotal Massacre and countless assassination attempts made on both Henri and La Môle, there is ample bloodshed amongst the tragedy and passion to satisfy the gore hounds (though if you are a gore hound and you are watching this movie, you may probably fall asleep half way through, which is your problem).
Gorgeous costumes, production and historically accurate sets made this film a true treat to watch, and then there is Isabelle Adjani as Margot and Vincent Perez as La Môle... God those two look gorgeous together! While they do not spend a lot of time together in the film, you can sense the fact that Margot pines for her lover and he likewise. People have criticized that there is zero chemistry between them, but look at it from this perspective; they met through chance in a turbulent era and had to be separated for a huge amount of time. On top of this, there are many layers to the characters- Margot would ordinarily be pidgeon-holed as virtuous and moral, but here, Adjani portrays her as blunt, impulsive, desperate, naive and promiscuous. First she dismisses Protestants as sub-human, the next she wants to save their lives. Perez is very much the smouldering romantic hero, but before meeting Margot, he considers her a whore and a selfish slave of fashion. God bless the French.
Comment vous faites bébé?
Now, on a more negative side, this cut of the film runs for 136-odd minutes. Not truly that long all said and done, but sometimes, it seemed as if the film was dragging it's boots in a couple of places. Mayhap it was a prolonged lead up to affairs, mayhap it was because of the fact I needed to pee a few times while watching the movie and had to stop the DVD. Also, some of the music cues seemed a little too modern amongst the mostly classical and sweeping score. Was this deliberate on the part of the composer? Because the rest of the score was very rich and relevant to the piece and it was slightly unusual to hear an underlying techno track to particularly dramatic sequences. I dunno, perhaps I am just being too picky.
Overall, 'La Reine Margot' is a visually and textually stunning film about how history at times simply be a mirror of our own modern barbarism when not an inspiration in the past. A solid continental cast involving a young Asia Argento (one of my grrrrrls) and the ever-comely Thomas Kretschmann in small but consequential roles assist in making this film a rewarding experience to watch.
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