Palais royal! (2005)
Directed by Valérie Lemercier

Film Review

No prizes for spotting that the life and death of Diana Princess of Wales was the main inspiration for this royal-themed send-up, the third directorial offering from the multi-talented Valérie Lemercier.  The fictional royal family portrayed in this film is a curious melange of the real royal families of Europe, but the storyline is clearly most influenced by the Diana-Charles debacle which rocked the British royals to their cold alabaster cores in the 1990s.  The film feels like a back-handed homage to Princess Diana, a warm-hearted celebration of individuality over conformity with a soulless establishment.

Lemercier assembles a fine cast which includes some of the biggest names in French cinema, each of whom gives great value.   Who better to play the scheming Catherine de Medici-like Queen Mother than the supremely regal Catherine Deneuve, and who better to play her shadowy eminence grise than Michel Aumont?   As the Diana-like lead character, Lemercier starts out as an appropriately dowdy housewife who, thanks to some animal-themed exercise lessons with Gilbert Melki, blossoms into the glamorous People's Princess.  Palais royal is an entertaining yet surprisingly incisive portrayal of how today's monarchies attempt to exploit the media for advantage, only to end up being abused by the same media as they fall prey to the endless "bread and circuses" ritual.

Film Synopsis

Arnaud's carefree life as a playboy prince comes to an abrupt end when his father, the much-loved king of a European country, is killed in a skiing accident.  Next in line to the throne is Arnaud's brother, Prince Alban, but his mother, Queen Eugénia, declares Alban is unfit to be king because he is still a bachelor, and so Arnaud is named the heir apparent.  The news is ill-received by Arnaud's wife Armelle, a speech therapist who is reluctant to give up her job and her anonymity to become an object of public scrutiny.  Try as she might, Armelle cannot help embarrassing her husband, and she begins to resent the humiliations his family subject her to.  The final straw is when she finds Arnaud in bed with her best friend.  Intent on revenge, Armelle decides to use the media to promote herself, at the expense of Arnaud and his family...