La Reine Margot (1954)

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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