THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, April 21, 1995 TAG: 9504210721
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E9 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
``QUEEN MARGOT,'' a rather steamy, loose adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' largely unreadable historical novel, is a feast of passionate groping and literal - not particularly literate - violence.
One could expect no less from a movie based on a massacre.
In this country the St. Bartholomew Day's Massacre is largely unknown. But in France it was the day when, with the reluctant aggreement of King Charles IX, some 4,000 to 6,000 Protestants (Hugenots) were slaughtered in Paris and the surrounding countryside.
During the latter half of the 16th century, France had continual wars between the Catholics, led by the royalty and nobility, and the Huguenots, seeking at most to take over the throne and at least to get religious tolerance. The battle lines came in the wake of Martin Luther's challenge to the Roman Catholic papacy in 1517.
With all this as background, ``Queen Margot'' is still not so concerned with history as it is with steamy sex and raw violence - and a quite impressive parade of costumes. (The film received its lone Oscar nomination for its costumes).
The pawn in the connivings is Marguerite of Valois, who came to be known as Queen Margot. In a hellish mother-daughter relationship, the Catholic Margot, heir to the French throne, is forced by her mum, Catherine of Medici, to marry the leader of the Protestants, Henri of Navarre. Catherine, whose Catholic son Charles IX already rules, plans to consolidate her power via this ruse. Margot, who hates her new husband, dons disguises and roams the streets of Paris at night seeking obsessive sex.
The film, though, is curiously uninvolving, even though the exquisite Isabelle Adjani has the role of Margot and a stunningly evil Virna Lisi plays the Queen Mother. Adjani's role is strangely small, and she plays it with a coolness that keeps the audience at a distance. Nonetheless, this is one of the great beauties of screen history and she clearly knows she is doing a star turn.
More impressive is the searing performance of Lisi, an actress who has been seen all-too-seldom in recent years. Lisi, who rejected Hollywood after being cast only in light comedies, returned to her native Italy three decades ago. For her role as Catherine of Medici, she won the Cannes Film Festival's best actress honor last year. (See story, this page.)
For the women, especially the women who can't resist a French accent, there is Vincent Perez as Margot's illicit lover.
Patrice Chereau, the film's director and co-writer, admits that history has been compressed and altered. In a visit to New York for the American premiere, he even revealed that the French seldom read this Dumas novel, so he didn't worry about changes.
If you like historical costume pieces, this is your ticket. Be warned, though, that the level of violence is high. What do you expect from a massacre? ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Isabelle Adjani in Patrice Chereau's ``Queen Margot.''
Graphic
MOVIE REVIEW
``Queen Margot''
Cast: Isabelle Adjani, Virna Lisi, Vincent Perez, Daniel Auteuil,
Jean-Hughes Anglade
Director: Patrice Chereau
Screenplay: Daniele Thompson and Patrice Chereau
Music: Gorgan Bregovi
MPAA rating: R (a massacre, beheading and dimly lit trysts)
Mal's rating: Three stars
Location: Naro, Norfolk
by CNB