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UK Mall 1 - La Reine Margot (1993)
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List Price: £5.99
Our Price: £9.90
Your Save: £ ( % )
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Manufacturer: Pathe Distribution
Starring: Isabelle Adjani, Daniel Auteuil, Jean-Hugues Anglade, Vincent Perez, Virna Lisi
Directed By: Patrice Chéreau
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Audience Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 5024165679609
Format: Dolby
Label: Pathe Distribution
Manufacturer: Pathe Distribution
Number Of Discs: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Pathe Distribution
Release Date: 1995-08-07
Running Time: 155
Studio: Pathe Distribution
Theatrical Release Date: 1994-12-09
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: magnificent margot in magnificent movie
Comment: the magnificent margot in a magnificent movie
That Adjani is a febrile character plotting and loving in 1576 France in a frenetic world where you could be killed for just proclaiming to be a catholic or protestant is the basis to comprehend this masterly act by the French cinema .
The St.Batholomew's day massacre is the setting where the marriage of Henri of Navarre played with a understated tenderness by Daniel Autieul to Margot in an effort to quell the religious conflict is used as a bait by the Catholics headed by Catherine de Medici [Virna lisi]to gather the Protestant aristocracy in Paris for a blood fest.
This is a truly evil and genius stroke which works with 6000 people being butchered in one night with Henri and La Mole saved by Margot,
the puppet king Charles [Anglade]is manipulated by his mother to virtually a charade as he is not in favour of the massacre,but Anjou his brother is just as conniving as the mother and together they conspire in a religious frenzy.
This actually is personal greed for power and control masked as God's work as is most religious frenzy ,the fanatics are the worst christians by any criteria forcibly converting protestants at knife point .
This is the truth and Patrice observes it with a great sense of passion and frenzy which makes this great cinema rather than a mere gruesome history lesson .
Adjani ,Auteuil and Anglade are drawn as humane characters who suffer,enjoy yet have an evil streak too,while La Mole played by the dashing Vincent Perez AS MARGOT'S LOVER is the sacrificial lamb used as a pawn by Catherine the queen who uses one son to assassinate another inadvertently.
She is convinced like all committed fanatics that her murderous schemes are the only absolution and redemption for the french ,her ambition is convicted in a noble motive seeking purity and peace while it wrecks destruction on the whole country as well as her family.
Adjani is played as a french princess would be with a grace and abandon where she is indifferent to any intervention and seeks her desires in public and in an overt manner.To understand this movie you need to study not just history but FRENCH psyche which does not believe in hiding it's true passion or motivations in diplomacy but will exonerate their true desires in a frenzy even if it costs dearly .
Everyone pays a price for their whims in this feverishly excitable classic which remarkably transforms a fascinating era into great entertainment and truly artistic splendour in one of the best historical movies movies ever made.
The fact Vincent perez and Virna lisi come out with aplomb amongst a great cast who are all excellent is no mean feat but neither is this movie any thing other than extra-ordinary .
It requires many viewings for it's technical delights alone with an eerie atmosphere immersed in a surreal light and a grandeur which transcends the costumes and the magnificence of louvre .
usman khawaja
- jbz7879
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Characters were weak & lets the film down
Comment: If you want a night of blood, madness, dirt and sex...this film is for you. It is a great story but I just did not believe in the characters (with the exeption of Henry)and hence did not much care about their fate. This made the film unexciting. Yes it looks great and authentic but every character is portrayed as brutal and none come across as really likable which gives the film an unbalanced feel. You get to the point where you just wish they would all kill each other and be done with it. This is not light entertainment or a tale for the romantic at hearts. It does tell an interesting story if in a somewhat unconvincing and nightmarish way.
Customer Rating:
Summary: History as only the French do it
Comment: This is a classic rewrite of a Dumas novel (with some very considerable changes to the story). What the film gives us is a marvellously dirty, smelly, small Paris in which life is lived at a fast rate since it seems to be destined to be short. On top of this "live fast die young" message is a pretty good attempt at representing the politics of the French Wars of Religion layered on top of a gang war with more twists than the Godfather. The Massacre which forms the key event of the story is breathlessly conveyed with a driving score And behind all that is a murder mystery. Dumas could write 'em, even if he didn't quite write this.
Adjani beautiful as only she could be.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A half-decent historical drama
Comment: La Reine Margot/Queen Margot feels like that old joke about starting with an earthquake and building up to a climax. The first half is very impressive as it builds up to the bloodily realized St Bartholomew's Day Massacre, but the aftermath is less effective despite a number of potentially intriguing plot developments and relationships. But then, director Patrice Chereau is always better at set-up than delivery. Certainly you tend to observe the characters as they go through hoops rather than being particularly involved with them. Isabelle Adjani's performance doesn't help matters: she's fine as the icy royal in the first half, but she never convincingly thaws once the horrendous lengths her family are prepared to go to becomes apparent. Daniel Auteuil overdoes the eyepopping mugging as her reluctant and justifiably nervous husband, but Jean-Hughes Anglade as the weak and doomed king and Virna Lisi as the ice-veined Catherine de Medici genuinely impress.
The only extra is the theatrical trailer.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Magnificent
Comment: A truly wonderful French film - beautiful to look at, passionate, brilliantly acted, heart-breaking. The French are very good at having 'ugly'men play noble characters like Henri de Navarre which makes a refreshing change from the UK/US 'good=beautiful, ugly=evil' equation. Yes this is violent and gory, but how could a film portraying what became known as the worst massacre in France before the Revolution be anything else? And despite that, the doomed love affair between Adjani's Margot and Vincent Perez's arrestingly beautiful La Mole is one of the most searing I have ever seen on film.
One of the few occasions where the film is far, far superior to the book.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: magnificent margot in magnificent movie
Comment: the magnificent margot in a magnificent movie
That Adjani is a febrile character plotting and loving in 1576 France in a frenetic world where you could be killed for just proclaiming to be a catholic or protestant is the basis to comprehend this masterly act by the French cinema .
The St.Batholomew's day massacre is the setting where the marriage of Henri of Navarre played with a understated tenderness by Daniel Autieul to Margot in an effort to quell the religious conflict is used as a bait by the Catholics headed by Catherine de Medici [Virna lisi]to gather the Protestant aristocracy in Paris for a blood fest.
This is a truly evil and genius stroke which works with 6000 people being butchered in one night with Henri and La Mole saved by Margot,
the puppet king Charles [Anglade]is manipulated by his mother to virtually a charade as he is not in favour of the massacre,but Anjou his brother is just as conniving as the mother and together they conspire in a religious frenzy.
This actually is personal greed for power and control masked as God's work as is most religious frenzy ,the fanatics are the worst christians by any criteria forcibly converting protestants at knife point .
This is the truth and Patrice observes it with a great sense of passion and frenzy which makes this great cinema rather than a mere gruesome history lesson .
Adjani ,Auteuil and Anglade are drawn as humane characters who suffer,enjoy yet have an evil streak too,while La Mole played by the dashing Vincent Perez AS MARGOT'S LOVER is the sacrificial lamb used as a pawn by Catherine the queen who uses one son to assassinate another inadvertently.
She is convinced like all committed fanatics that her murderous schemes are the only absolution and redemption for the french ,her ambition is convicted in a noble motive seeking purity and peace while it wrecks destruction on the whole country as well as her family.
Adjani is played as a french princess would be with a grace and abandon where she is indifferent to any intervention and seeks her desires in public and in an overt manner.To understand this movie you need to study not just history but FRENCH psyche which does not believe in hiding it's true passion or motivations in diplomacy but will exonerate their true desires in a frenzy even if it costs dearly .
Everyone pays a price for their whims in this feverishly excitable classic which remarkably transforms a fascinating era into great entertainment and truly artistic splendour in one of the best historical movies movies ever made.
The fact Vincent perez and Virna lisi come out with aplomb amongst a great cast who are all excellent is no mean feat but neither is this movie any thing other than extra-ordinary .
It requires many viewings for it's technical delights alone with an eerie atmosphere immersed in a surreal light and a grandeur which transcends the costumes and the magnificence of louvre .
usman khawaja
- jbz7879
Customer Rating:
Summary: Characters were weak & lets the film down
Comment: If you want a night of blood, madness, dirt and sex...this film is for you. It is a great story but I just did not believe in the characters (with the exeption of Henry)and hence did not much care about their fate. This made the film unexciting. Yes it looks great and authentic but every character is portrayed as brutal and none come across as really likable which gives the film an unbalanced feel. You get to the point where you just wish they would all kill each other and be done with it. This is not light entertainment or a tale for the romantic at hearts. It does tell an interesting story if in a somewhat unconvincing and nightmarish way.
Customer Rating:
Summary: History as only the French do it
Comment: This is a classic rewrite of a Dumas novel (with some very considerable changes to the story). What the film gives us is a marvellously dirty, smelly, small Paris in which life is lived at a fast rate since it seems to be destined to be short. On top of this "live fast die young" message is a pretty good attempt at representing the politics of the French Wars of Religion layered on top of a gang war with more twists than the Godfather. The Massacre which forms the key event of the story is breathlessly conveyed with a driving score And behind all that is a murder mystery. Dumas could write 'em, even if he didn't quite write this.
Adjani beautiful as only she could be.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A half-decent historical drama
Comment: La Reine Margot/Queen Margot feels like that old joke about starting with an earthquake and building up to a climax. The first half is very impressive as it builds up to the bloodily realized St Bartholomew's Day Massacre, but the aftermath is less effective despite a number of potentially intriguing plot developments and relationships. But then, director Patrice Chereau is always better at set-up than delivery. Certainly you tend to observe the characters as they go through hoops rather than being particularly involved with them. Isabelle Adjani's performance doesn't help matters: she's fine as the icy royal in the first half, but she never convincingly thaws once the horrendous lengths her family are prepared to go to becomes apparent. Daniel Auteuil overdoes the eyepopping mugging as her reluctant and justifiably nervous husband, but Jean-Hughes Anglade as the weak and doomed king and Virna Lisi as the ice-veined Catherine de Medici genuinely impress.
The only extra is the theatrical trailer.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Magnificent
Comment: A truly wonderful French film - beautiful to look at, passionate, brilliantly acted, heart-breaking. The French are very good at having 'ugly'men play noble characters like Henri de Navarre which makes a refreshing change from the UK/US 'good=beautiful, ugly=evil' equation. Yes this is violent and gory, but how could a film portraying what became known as the worst massacre in France before the Revolution be anything else? And despite that, the doomed love affair between Adjani's Margot and Vincent Perez's arrestingly beautiful La Mole is one of the most searing I have ever seen on film.
One of the few occasions where the film is far, far superior to the book.
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