Director: Patrice Chéreau
Cast: Isabelle Adjani, Daniel Auteuil, Jean-Hugues Anglade, Vincent Perez, Virna Lisi, Dominique Blanc, Pascal Greggory, Miguel Bosé, Asia Argento, Jean-Claude Brialy, Jean-Philippe Écoffey
Margot, daughter of scheming Catholic power player Catherine de Medicis, is an heiress to the throne during the late 16th century reign of the neurotic, hypochondriac King Charles IX, a time when Protestants and Catholics are vying for political control of France.
Catherine decides to make an overture of good will by offering up Margot in marriage to prominent Protestant Huguenot Henri of Navarre (future Henri IV), although she also schemes to bring about the notorious St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre of 1572, when tens of thousands of Protestants are slaughtered. The marriage goes forward but Margot doesn’t love Henri and takes a lover, the soldier La Mole, also a Protestant from a well-to-do family.
Murders by poisoning follow, as court intrigues multiply and Catherine’s villainous plotting to place her son Anjou on the throne threatens the lives of La Mole, Margot and Henri.
Adapted for the screen from a historical novel by Alexandre Dumas, this historical drama of epic proportions is an authentic balance between period sumptuousness and realistic grittiness, held together by great performances of a bunch of young (at that time) French actors.
