Movie Review: The Princess of Montpensier

The Princess of Montpensier

Paradis Films

139 mins.

May 16, 2010

Rated: PG-13

This is a beautiful French foreign film that was originally screened at the Cannes Film Festival in 2010. It is based on a short story by Madame de La Fayette published in 1662. It is believed that the events in the story are based on real events of people the author knew, but was changed to a different time period from that when it was written.

This is a romantic drama. The general plotline is that Marie, the Princess of Montpensier, is in love with the Duke de Guise, not her husband the Prince of Montpensier. There is also the Prince’s close friend, the Count of Chabannes who is in love with Marie as well. What will she do? Choose to learn to love her husband as everyone says she must or abandon him for the arms of the man she has loved since childhood? All of this is set within the reign of Catherine de’ Medici as the Queen Mother and encapsulates the Huguenot/Catholic drama and the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre.

The scenery is absolutely gorgeous. None of it is computer generated and it was all filmed on location. One of the things that I loved was getting to see how difficult riding long distances was – whether on horseback or in a carriage – it didn’t look fun. The costumes were GORGEOUS! I loved the colors and the styles and especially her hats! Her green riding outfit toward the very end of the film was my favorite.

The war/fight scenes were very well done. You could feel the emotions of the characters – although I really think that the Prince could have been a lot more than whiny. I thought that Melanie Thierry (Marie), Gregoire Leprince-Ringuet (Montpensier) and Gaspard Ulliel (Guise) were wonderful. I didn’t really love Raphael Personnaz as the Duke de Anjou – the character seemed a little creepy to me. I loved listening to the French dialogue – although I had no idea what it meant unless I read the subtitles.

A beautiful film and full of drama and intrigue.

Check out this trailer:

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