Queen Margot Film Review

This is like jumping into the deep end of French history unable to swim and without a life preserver. The historical characters and events come at you fast and furious and you have to sprint to keep up. But what a sprint it is. It is spectacular, epic and relentless in its driving narrative. At 160 minutes it wears you into the ground with its large cast of characters, complex plot, riveting story and history passing at the speed of light. For most people not familiar with French history of the 1500's - that would almost certainly be all of us - it is both fascinating and perplexing. Who are all these people, what relationship are they to one another and are they Catholic or Protestant. That last part is essential to understanding who they are. Though based on a novel by Alexander Dumas, it is - after reading up on it - generally true. The characters were all real people, the major events are true and the outcomes are close to how it happened. In the middle of these swirling events is Margot with a stunning performance from Isabelle Adjani that begins on her wedding day.

A tiny bit of history. Knowing this before watching the film may be of value. Beginning in 1562 for over 35 years in France The War of Religion took place with bloody battles between the Catholics who ruled the country and the Protestants - called Huguenots. When this began Henry II was king and his wife was Catherine de' Medici from the famous Italian de' Medici family - married to Henry at 14. She had a gaggle of children - three sons who at different times became the King of France. Francis the II became King after his father died and Charles IX became King when Francis died shortly after becoming King leaving no son. Charles IX (Jean-Hugues Anglade) is King when the film begins - with his brother Henry III waiting in the wings. Margot is their sister. In an attempt to bring peace between the two religions Charles has negotiated her marriage to the King of Navarre, Henri (Daniel Auteuil). Navarre at the time was a small kingdom between France and Spain. He is Protestant and surprisingly in the Royal Line of Succession if enough people die.

It is the wedding day and nobody is happy. Margot has a lover and has no desire to marry this man. Neither does he want to marry a Catholic. People on both sides see this as blasphemy. This is some wedding reception. Everyone wants to kill someone, Margot tells Henri she will not sleep with him and to stay away, she is looking at men to see if one is qualified to bed her that night, insults exchanged like daggers, fights break out, women flirt and dish the dirt. That would be a wedding I would like to attend. That night she fights with her lover and sends him away and tells her Lady-in-Waiting that she needs a man so they put masks on and prowl the streets. She sees a man lying on the street - La Môle (Vincent Perez) from a well to do Protestant family - and they go off in the first available alleyway and get down to business standing up. Then she goes back to the castle.

The castle is filled with conspiracies, plans, fears and whispers of death, The Royal family decides to kill all the Protestant leaders staying as guests in the castle. The killing begins and spreads. Thousand die and it became known as St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, August 23 1572. Henri survives but is held as prisoner, Margot is re-united with her alleyway lover, Catherine the mother keeps hatching plots to kill Henri and the Protestants conspire to free Henri. There is so much stuff going on in this film - Catherine played by Virna Lisi is amazing as the cold calculating serpentine villainess in the shadows moving chess pieces around. Margot wants to simply stay alive.

The King is often half nuts and other times seemingly sane, the brother just wants him dead, the mother schemes. Today we would call it a dysfunctional family. Everybody in this film looks in need of a shower and haircut - director Patrice Chéreau is not going for opulence and luxury. Everything looks dingy, corrupt and claustrophobic. No grand ballrooms and beautiful large bedrooms - it all looks dark and decrepit. There are some stunning scenes - the wedding ceremony, the butchery, the dead afterwards being piled into carts, one character is poisoned and blood seeps from his pores. The film ends before it happens - but in fact Henri does become the King of France, Henry IV - from 1589 to 1610. He was called Good King Henry or Henry the Great. He had to convert to Catholicism to do so. He passed the Edict of Nantes that proclaimed freedom of religion and ended the Wars. His marriage to Queen Margot was annulled in 1599. they had no children and then he married a de Medici and they had six - one being Louis XIII. He was assassinated in 1610. Queen Margot died in 1615.