Pluskylang Great Film overall

Lumsdal Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

BroadcastChic Excellent, a Must See

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

surajalva La Reine Margot is about the St. Bartholomew's day massacre and the intrigues at the court before and after the event. It uniquely tries to denominate Catherine de Medicis as the evil culprit as can be seen, in a way, by her terrible Italian accent. Even though till today the orchestrator of the massacre is in doubt, the movie seems to place the blame on an outsider, on an Italian. Ah, the French, always weary of the outsider. It is close to hilarious to see the portrayal of Charles the ninth as a hypochondriac/drunk, always under the control of external influences. External from himself. Himself representing France. An acute sense of this movie can be derived from a dialog lasting fifteen or so seconds, and which I could not get out of my head {and I kept telling myself throughout the film}. It is the scene where Margot tells Charles XIX, after he witnesses the massacre: Calme-Toi, Calme-Toi. The film is a stupid, overly dramatized piece of work that plays to the emotions of the French. It is a crime against historical fiction and should be persecuted to the fullest extent; the penalty being its burning. The burning of all its copies, original and duplicate reels, so that not a word of it might be spoken of; ever.

luluzj If you are not familiar with the French history, this movie may be a little painful to you. As for me, I spent a lot of time familiarizing myself with all those characters and events so that refrained myself from getting lost with the story.Adjani is really beautiful, she's kind of combination of Monica Beluci and Sophie Marcau. Maybe beautiful people all resemble.The edition I saw has already cut off the sex scene, so the story appeared fragmented to me. Despite it, the tragical destiny of Queen Margot is still very clear. Her marriage was used by her mum as a bait for a massacre, her beautiful body was used by her brothers as sex tools. And the only man she fell in love with began with a one-night- sex, and ended up on a guillotine. How desperate and helpless can a woman feel!Adjani did a great job in presenting all those feelings--noble, slutty, considerate or desperate. Her beautiful blue eyes are like a quite lake, you can never tell what's beneath.

writers_reign I can't recall ever being disappointed in a film written by Daniele Thompson who has gone on to prove herself a brilliant writer-director also. Nothing if not versatile she began with one of the biggest box-office hits in French cinema, La Grande Vadrouille, which is still being revived close to half a century later and continued in comedic vein with such titles as Les Folies de grandeur and The Adventures of Rabbi Jacob whilst along the way launching the career of Sophie Marceau via La Boum - if these two ladies were fillies rather than filles we could employ handicapper terms to note that Marceau has just released her own second film as writer-director - before turning serious as she does here and also with Those Who Love Me Can Take The Train. This time around she is working with historical facts as distorted through the prism of Alexander Dumas and giving them a new coat of paint before setting them before Isabelle Adjani, Virna Lisi, Daniel Auteuil, Jean-Huges Anglade, Pascall Greggory, Vincent Perez and, if you're paying attention to every frame, Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, all of which, with the possible exception of Perez, turn in fine performances modulating toward the exceptional in the case of Virna Lisi's Catherine de Medici. The plot has been discussed elsewhere so suffice it to say that as costume dramas go this is among the best even if the direction is the odd light year behind Thompson's screenplay.

monimm18 Since I enjoyed reading Dumas' "Queen Margot" long before this film was made, I went to see it fearing a disappointment - usually it's hard to turn a good book into an equally good film. I was pleasantly surprised. The film follows the book a bit loosely, and maybe that was a good thing; too many times copying a book faithfully makes a film lose focus and artistic/dramatic impact. "La Reine Margot" is played by a great team of actors that turned in excellent performances. Daniel Auteuil, as Henry de Navarre is superb as usual, in his depiction of an intelligent king caught in the middle of the deadly politics of a religious war; Isabelle Adjani is perfect for the title role, so is Vincent Perez as La Mole, and the rest of the cast is just as wonderful, except I thought Virna Lisi was a bit too melodramatic in depicting the "evilness" of Catherine de Medici and I found the film's suggestion that there were some sort of incestuous relations between Catherine and her sons sensationalist, unfounded and a bit slimy for a film of this caliber). The costumes seem as sumptuous as French royals would wear in those times, without looking overdone; the decors and extras appear as real as if filmed in a time warp - dirt, mess and all; they are carefully done, yet without an over-manicured look; all this conferred the film an air of authenticity instead of just making it look too perfectly staged. The violence of the St. Bartholomew massacre looks quite realistic and non-glamorized, which apparently turned off many viewers. Hmmm... give us violence, but don't let us feel bad about it.The story is loosely based on historical truth, but is close enough to it. Apparently, Margot was indeed a victim of the politics of the time, and the whole business of her saving Henry de Navarre from assassination and helping him gain political momentum is historically true. Although she divorced him later and he remarried, they remained in friendly terms. The love affair with La Mole might just as well be true too, considering that Margot had a many lovers, not surprisingly, since all other aspects of her life were controlled or repressed by others... I was a bit sorry to see Catherine de Medicis portrayed so unidimensionally as the vicious, bloodthirsty queen mother. Her methods were not excusable, but considering the times, they were the typical "diplomatic tools" employed by everyone. Although Italian and married to Henry II against her will, she loved France and embraced her resposiblities as its queen, and her purpose was, besides keeping the House of Valois on the throne, to save the country from a civil war that would have exposed it to invasion by Spain and England. OK, back to the film: I thought it was great, with excellent dialogue, well crafted scenes, good suspense, the romance is not corny, yet dramatic enough. Historically accurate or not, it gives one a glimpse of how love, life and the politics of those times must have been. Lovely to watch.