Summary
Paris, 1572. Ostensibly to settle decades of enmity between Protestants and Catholics,
King Charles IX of France agrees to marry his sister Margot to the Huguenot prince Henri
de Navarre. In reality, this is merely a plot conceived by the wicked Queen Mother,
Catherine de Medici, to lure her Huguenot enemies out into the open so that they can all
be massacred. Unable to love her new husband, Margot has an affair with a Protestant
messenger, La Môle, whilst the her mother makes plans to dispose of Henri de Navarre...
Review
Forty years before Patrice Chéreau made his controversial and critically acclaimed
La Reine Margot, with Isabelle
Adjani playing the title role, Jean Dréville made a film which tells the same story.
The script was written by pioneering film-maker Abel Gance, adapting one of Alexandre
Dumas' most famous works. (Dumas' novel has often been criticised for its distortion
of historical fact, particularly the part played by Catherine Medici in the Huguenot
masacre). Although noticeably less violent than Chéreau’s film, Dréville
La Reine Margot is just as shocking in places, with pretty explicit scenes of public
execution and the infamous St Bartholemew's Eve massacre.
The film's only real let down is that attempts to combine a rather brutal historical drama
with a Hollywood-style romance, and the mix doesn't really work. This flaw is most
apparent in the film’s somewhat flat ending – when the happy ending fails to materialise
the film kind of gives up, giving the impression that only part of the story has been
told. At least Chéreau’s version made some attempt to explain what happened
next and thereby close the narrative.
In spite of these deficiencies, La Reine Margot is generally a well-made production,
with sets and costumes which give a convincing portrayal of late 16th century France.
The film’s strength lies in the quality of the acting, with Jeanne Moreau giving a notable
performance in one of her earliest major film roles. Louis de Funès makes
an all-too-brief appearance in the film (one of his rare non-comic film roles) but is
he no less impressive for that. However, it is the magnificent Françoise
Rosay who steals the show, giving a truly venomous portrayal of the Queen Mother, Catherine
de Medici - a chillingly believable depiction of purest evil and vicious cunning.
© James Travers 2002
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