newjerseynewsroom.com

A handsome historical romance

BY JOE TYRRELL

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

MOVIE REVIEW

As the credits roll at the end of "La Princesse de Montpensier," one expects a disclaimer: Relatively few entrails were spilled or bodices ripped in the making of this movie.

Bernard Tavernier's handsome historical romance, now in limited release in New Jersey and via on-demand systems, slams the audience into 16th Century France, and the first reaction is, "Get us out of here!"

As stragglers and walking wounded stagger through bodies spread across a field, a handful of brightly uniformed horsemen come charging down the road. They make sure to ride down the nearest injured men, and go barreling on toward a stone barn.

But after they cross a stream, three horsemen dressed in black ride out of a copse and pursue them, firing pistols into the barn "in the name of Christ." One of the men in black is killed but his compatriots are victorious in a bloody brawl that finishes with their leader putting his sword through the belly of a pregnant peasant.

This first 90 seconds has all the strengths and weaknesses of the next two hours and 15 minutes. The setting is beautiful, the action is visceral and everything has a rawness and immediacy often missing from period pieces.

On the other hand, who are these guys? What do they want? Who are we rooting for? Why do we seem to be following the man who just murdered that pregnant woman? Weren't we promised a princess?

We've joined France's religious wars, already in progress. The colorfully dressed killers are Catholics, the ebony-dressed ones are Huguenots (Protestants). They are even more confused than the viewer.

The man who slew the woman is François, comte de Chabannes, played by the attractively grizzled Lambert Wilson. After the fight, he frantically wipes the blood from his sword, and soon tells his faithful squire/aide/homme vendredi that that's the last pregnant woman he's going to kill, he's leaving.

Chabannes was fighting for the Huguenots because years earlier, his father recommended him to two great lords of very slightly different faiths, and the Protestant one replied first. Now as a deserter, neither side will accept him.

Being anathema to all Christians is not a good thing when they are slaying each other over tiny doctrinal differences. But Chabannes finds protection with a former student, the young prince of Montpensier, played by the handsome but not excessively so Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet.

The prince takes Chabannes to a castle where they encounter Montpensier's cousins from the powerful house of Guise and the avaricious one of Mézières. The young people include the beautiful Marie de Mézières, played by Mélanie Thierry.

Marie is engaged to her nice, calm cousin Mayenne de Guise (César Domboy). But he is willing to step aside, because she's clearly in love with his dashing, battle-scarred brother, Henri (Gaspard Ulliel).

While the young people chat, and the prince and Henri resume a long-running, sporting duel, Marie's father is altering her future. No Guises for her, he's traded her to Montpensier's father. The Marquis de Mézières gets a tract of land and an order for wine, Marie gets the young prince as a husband.

Rebellious Marie is slapped by her father and counseled by her mother. She goes along with the marriage, but her convent education omitted some things. Her new husband is soon back at the wars, fighting alongside the very jealous Henri de Guise.

Meanwhile, back at the castle, Chabannes has been assigned to help the princess learn courtly skills _ Latin and poetry, that is. But soon he too falls under her spell. And then the Duc d'Anjou, the king's jaunty brother, arrives on the scene.

Suavely played by Raphaël Personnaz, complete with dangling earring, Anjou virtually steals the movie from under the noses of the other boys. It is a casually great performance in a movie filled with good ones. But as the older and wiser Chabannes, Wilson remains steadfastly on guard.

All this is based on a 1662 novella by Madame de La Fayette, the first French historical novelist. It was originally adapted by François-Olivier Rousseau, but rewritten by Tavernier and his writing partner Jean Cosmos.

Without being preachy, there are points made about the low status of even high-born women, and parallels drawn about the men battling over Marie and the factions fighting to control France.

If you slept through "Wars of Religion" in your current affairs class, it's not necessary to know that the reigning Valois dynasty is looking poorly; the Queen Mother and real power is Catherine de' Medici; she is under pressure from the arch-conservative Catholic League, led by the de Guises, to dispense with the Huguenots; the family name of the lords and ladies of Montpensier is Bourbon.