La Reine Margot - French Film Guide (Hardcover)

Patrice Chereau's 1994 film "La Reine Margot" paints a vivid canvas of political intolerance and intrigue framed as a romance between Marguerite de Valois (Isabelle Adjani) and her Protestant lover La Mole (Vincent Perez). The film is based on Alexandre Dumas' historical novel and is renowned for its eroticised and violent depiction of the French national past, especially the treatment of the 1572 St Bartholomew's Day massacre of French Protestants. Julianne Pidduck examines the industrial, social and political contexts of the film's production as part of an influential recent cycle of French historical 'super-productions', including "Cyrano de Bergerac" and "The Horseman on the Roof". Conceived as a cinematic 'event ' film featuring the elusive star Isabelle Adjani, "Margot" presents a theatrical chiaroscuro Renaissance past. Pidduck goes deep into this prestigious costume film and traces the wide critical acclaim it has received, both nationally and internationally. She also reveals how "Margot's" cinematic spectacle of Renaissance religious intolerance offers a haunting allegory French and European experience.