Rating: 
Summary: THIS HISTORY IS HOT
Review: I'm surprised no reviewer mentioned the steamy sex scenes in this movie, particularly the one where the Queen
goes street walking to find some action and, quite taken with Perez, is then taken up against a wall.
Holds its own with the best stuff in UNFAITHFUL.
(I guess this is also a warning to those who prefer their history unadulterated.)
Rating: 
Summary: Fabulous historical fiction......
Review: Isabel Adjani (Camile Claudel) and Vincent Perez (Swept From the Sea, Indochine) star as lovers in this film set in the time of Henri IV of France (mid-late 16th Century). If you don't like the sight of blood, you may want to avoid the film--the St Bartholmew's Day massacre (Aug. 24) is a big event--but if you love history--especially European history--especially French history--this film will prove interesting. Queen Margot (Adjani) was a real person who was forced to marry the Spanish prince who became Henri IV (Daniel Auteil). Henri was from the Bourbon branch of the French family and on the day of his marriage to Margot, he converted to Catholicism. It was he who said, "Paris is worth a Mass." Margot did not love Henri, and eventually he divorced her for her wanton ways and married Marie who is well remembered as his wife and widow and a co-ruler of France. While she was married to Henri, Margot is reputed to have been involved with many men. This story is a tale of the times from her perspective and reveals her affair with an ordinary soldier who happened to be in Paris the day Protestant Huguenots were massacred, and whom she saved from a vicious mob--according to this part of the story which may be fictionalize to some extent. This is a passionate film, and years later memory bubbles of some of the more dramtic scenes pop into my mind. I am happy to see it out on DVD at last.
Rating: 
Summary: A beautiful film done a huge disservice
Review: Queen Margot is one of the more beautiful french films you are likely to see - right up there with Tous Les Matins du Monde and La Belle Noiseuse. The story is well executed, the direction excellent, the acting top notch, the actors all exquisitely beautiful, the art departments are spectacular and the lighting and cinematography are outstanding. So why on earth did Miramax decide to put out such a horribly bad DVD transfer of this glorious film? From the opening credits, the amount of digital artifacting in the blacks is horrific - the frames literally freeze when there is no movement on screen - the audio is hollow and without depth - and picture detailing is washed out. Now, you will likely get used to these appalling bad choices on the part of the distribution company who decided to save a few bucks on a decent DVD encoding and still get wrapped up in the stunningly beautiful Isabelle Adajani (who was over 40 at the time of this film's lensing!) and the truly compelling storytelling going on in this film. However, it's just such a disappointment to see a company reknown for it's sensitivity to the "art film" genre make such a crassly ignorant decision as this one. Let's all hope that Criterion decides to honor this truly deserving film with a DVD transfer worthy of it's filmmakers. 5 stars for the film and 0 stars for the DVD itself = 3 stars overall - worth renting for those who haven't seen it, worth owning for those of us who love it and for those who can live without, wait until a proper DVD is put out!
Rating:
Summary: A beautiful film done a huge disservice
Review: Queen Margot is one of the more beautiful french films you are likely to see - right up there with Tous Les Matins du Monde and La Belle Noiseuse. The story is well executed, the direction excellent, the acting top notch, the actors all exquisitely beautiful, the art departments are spectacular and the lighting and cinematography are outstanding. So why on earth did Miramax decide to put out such a horribly bad DVD transfer of this glorious film? From the opening credits, the amount of digital artifacting in the blacks is horrific - the frames literally freeze when there is no movement on screen - the audio is hollow and without depth - and picture detailing is washed out. Now, you will likely get used to these appalling bad choices on the part of the distribution company who decided to save a few bucks on a decent DVD encoding and still get wrapped up in the stunningly beautiful Isabelle Adajani (who was over 40 at the time of this film's lensing!) and the truly compelling storytelling going on in this film. However, it's just such a disappointment to see a company reknown for it's sensitivity to the "art film" genre make such a crassly ignorant decision as this one. Let's all hope that Criterion decides to honor this truly deserving film with a DVD transfer worthy of it's filmmakers. 5 stars for the film and 0 stars for the DVD itself = 3 stars overall - worth renting for those who haven't seen it, worth owning for those of us who love it and for those who can live without, wait until a proper DVD is put out!
Rating:
Summary: Just a history note
Review: Queen Margot relates the events preceding and following the notorious St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre (August 24, 1572). France is gripped with skirmishes between Roman Catholics and Protestants (Huguenots), leading to the doomed marriage between the royals, Catholic Margot (Adjani) and the Protestant King of Navarre, Henri (Auteuil). Following the wedding, Margot's mother, Queen Catherine de Medici, wages a Protestant slaughter in the streets of Paris and imprisons Margot and Henri. This epic history is used as a backdrop to tell the more intimate story of the coalition between Margot and her husband, as well as her relationship with her Protestant lover (Vincent Perez). The acting, costumes, and cinematography are all first-rate. Accordingly, the movie received an Oscar nomination for best costume design, and it won 5 Cesars (the French equivalent of the Oscar), including best actress for Adjani. The director (Patrice Chéreau) succeeds brilliantly because he manages to make the film urgent, unlike most historical dramas, by focusing on the passion involved in the characters' lives. Queen Margot is also surprisingly bloody and realistic for such a picture, and the slaughter is depicted rather graphically. The only debit of the film is the overly complex and sometimes confusing political machinations that drive the narrative. However, the confused viewer should not worry about the details and enjoy the overall feel and emotion of the film. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Stunning and Passionate
Review: Queen Margot relates the events preceding and following the notorious St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre (August 24, 1572). France is gripped with skirmishes between Roman Catholics and Protestants (Huguenots), leading to the doomed marriage between the royals, Catholic Margot (Adjani) and the Protestant King of Navarre, Henri (Auteuil). Following the wedding, Margot's mother, Queen Catherine de Medici, wages a Protestant slaughter in the streets of Paris and imprisons Margot and Henri. This epic history is used as a backdrop to tell the more intimate story of the coalition between Margot and her husband, as well as her relationship with her Protestant lover (Vincent Perez). The acting, costumes, and cinematography are all first-rate. Accordingly, the movie received an Oscar nomination for best costume design, and it won 5 Cesars (the French equivalent of the Oscar), including best actress for Adjani. The director (Patrice Chéreau) succeeds brilliantly because he manages to make the film urgent, unlike most historical dramas, by focusing on the passion involved in the characters' lives. Queen Margot is also surprisingly bloody and realistic for such a picture, and the slaughter is depicted rather graphically. The only debit of the film is the overly complex and sometimes confusing political machinations that drive the narrative. However, the confused viewer should not worry about the details and enjoy the overall feel and emotion of the film. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Great movie, Horrible DVD
Review: This DVD is a tremendous disappointment. My wife and I love this movie, but the nonanamorphic image is frequently blurred, over saturated, and distorted. The sound is listenable but unimpressive. In all, I would have hoped for a better presentation. Save your money. Let's hope the studios wake up and start giving us high definition ANAMORPHIC remastering on all DVD releases. This release is almost as pathetic as the hugely disappointing DVD of Europa Europa.
Rating:
Summary: best french foreign film
Review: This has to be the best depiction of a period so long ago done anytime in the 90s...Adjani and Perez and Anglade are spectacular! Its a powerful film, if not from the history, then at least from its imagery and passion...If you are into history, Nostrodamus' predictions, or just Isabelle Adjani, see this movie! Let nothing stop you! Its well worth it, just buy it!
Rating:
Summary: Not a Dull Moment
Review: This movie begins with the wedding in 1572 of Margaret (Margot) of Valois, sister of the French king Charles IX, to the Protestant Henry of Navarre. The wedding is supposed to heal the rift between Catholics and Protestants but Margaret's family soon have other ideas and while Paris is still awash with Protestant visitors up for the wedding, her mother Catherine de Medici, her brothers and her lover Guise order the terrible slaughter of Protestants now known as the St Bartholemew's Day Massacre. The first hour of this film builds up to this event. The rest deals with the fall-out as Margaret, appalled by the massacre, allies herself to the Protestant cause and seeks to help both her new husband and her new lover La Mole, whom she has saved from the general slaughter, to prevail against the schemings of her own dreadful family. This is a hugely melodramatic film based on a romantic novel by Dumas so it probably is not the most reliable way of informing yourself about 16th century France. But that doesn't stop it being enormous fun. The atmosphere of the French court, a decadent milieu where promiscuity, adultery and incest are so normal as barely to excite comment, thick with plotting and intrigue, is deliciously presented and the romance of the love affair between Margaret and La Mole is carried off with gripping panache. The acting is excellent. Adjani, Auteuil and Perez are excellent in the main roles of Margot, Navarre and La Mole. Jean-Hughes Anglade is magnificently ' sometimes hilariously ' over the top as a weak and unstable Charles IX. and the show is more or less stolen by Virna Lisi as a splendidly evil Catherine de Medici, creeping around the place like Max Schreck's Count Orlok, never happy unless she is plotting the death of another of her many enemies. Melodramatic historical hokum mainly but it's hard to think of another recent film that does the melodramatic historical hokum thing half so well. If you want to spend two hours being as just far as possible from bored, this is a reliable prescription.
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