Sunday, May 29, 2011
Etienne George/Paradis Films
Marie de Montpensier, portrayed by Melanie Thierry, finds among her admirers Comte de Chabannes, played by Lambert Wilson, in "The Princess of Montpensier."
Marie de Mezieres (Melanie Thierry) is a victim of her time -- 1567 -- and irresistible beauty.
Although she is promised to another (who conveniently happens to be the brother of the man she really loves), Marie's father is convinced a new match would better suit and benefit him.
When she resists, he commands: "I order you! ... You will yield or enter a convent!"
She is willing to go into a nunnery, but he won't lose his valuable trump card. Even her mother tells her to submit, suggesting Marie would ultimately succumb to the temptation of being so close to the man she burns for.
- Starring: Melanie Thierry, Lambert Wilson, Gregoire Leprince-Ringuet, Gaspard Ulliel.
- Rating: Not rated but R in nature for nudity. In French with English subtitles.
Marie's mother may know best in the historical drama "The Princess of Montpensier." Marie's search for passion, happiness and enlightenment is set against the French Wars of Religion pitting the Catholics against the Huguenots.
She bends to her father's wishes and marries Philippe de Montpensier (Gregoire Leprince-Ringuet), who takes Marie to one of his family's secluded castles. When Philippe is summoned back to the battlefield, he leaves Marie in the care of his onetime teacher, Comte de Chabannes (Lambert Wilson).
The older man swore off barbarity and fighting after he stabbed a pregnant woman in the name of Christ. "How can people of the same blood and faith kill each other in the name of the same God?" he later asks.
Chabannes finds in Marie a ready and willing pupil, eager to learn how to write, read and look to the heavens. The teacher maintains a discreet distance but falls under Marie's spell, as does the duke of Anjou (Raphael Personnaz), who is on the battlefield with the man who first captured Marie's heart, Henri de Guise (Gaspard Ulliel).
Her husband grows jealous of her coterie of admirers, and Marie increasingly is caught in a world where war erupts and ebbs, where marriage is a business proposition, where men see themselves as romantic rivals and where women are expected to obey and are traded along with the horses and hounds.
The clash of conflicts and emotions proves nearly as damaging as the religion-fueled wars when the main players take a stand and often pay a price for it.
"Princess" is co-written and directed by Bertrand Tavernier, whose whimsical heart-warmer "It All Starts Today" played in Pittsburgh, as did the tribute to the jazz scene called "'Round Midnight."
The movie is based on the short novel of the same time, a thinly veiled tale of passion between Henrietta of England, wife of Louis XIV's brother, and playboy-nobleman Comte de Guiche. To disguise the members of the romantic roundelay, the novelist set the story a century earlier and invented some elements.
At 139 minutes, "Princess" is on the long side, and it seems to move slowly, despite the periodic bloody bursts and exquisite attention to detail. It has royal intrigue -- Catherine de Medici appears briefly, endorsing her belief in astrology -- but it presumes the audience brings some background to the screen.
The movie's ending is appropriately dramatic but unsatisfying. It has a decisive declaration from a character but no clue about that person's fate, leaving questions that remain unaddressed and unanswered.
In French with English subtitles, it opens today at the Manor Theater in Squirrel Hill.
Movie editor Barbara Vancheri: bvancheri@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1632. Read her Mad About the Movies blog at www.post-gazette.com/movies.First published on May 27, 2011 at 12:00 am
Source: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11147/1149403-120-0.stm?cmpid=movievideo.xml
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