The Princess of Montpensier

The Princess of Montpensier is a 2010 French period romance film directed by Bertrand Tavernier, inspired by a short story of the same name published anonymously by Madame de La Fayette in 1662. It stars Mélanie Thierry in the title role, alongside Gaspard Ulliel, Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet, Lambert Wilson and Raphaël Personnaz. The film mixes fiction and history in the years of bloody conflict known as the Wars of Religion, which not only opposed Catholics with Protestants but also involved bitter power struggles between factions of the nobility and the royal family. The culminating event is the St Bartholomew's Day massacre in 1572, during which mobs of armed Catholics hunted down and slaughtered thousands of their Protestant neighbours. Amid these dramatic events, the central story is that of the Princess, who loves a childhood friend but is forced into marriage with another man and is in turn loved by her older tutor. The film competed at the 63rd Cannes Film Festival and was released in French cinemas on 3 November 2010. Plot Sickened at the meaningless bloodshed between Catholics and Protestants in the French Wars of Religion (1562-1598), the Count of Chabannes, a Huguenot Protestant, of middle age, decides to desert from the Prince of Condé's army. Captured by bandits who are about to hang him, he is rescued by a former pupil, the young Prince of Montpensier, who has been fighting for the Catholic side, but who bears a high regard for his former tutor. The two ride together to the castle of the Mézières family, whom the prince's father has been visiting to negotiate a marriage between his son and their daughter. This is Marie Mézières age 17. She has never met her intended husband, but has been on intimate terms with her childhood friend, the hot-headed young Henri Duke of Guise of the powerful and ambitious Guise family. Guise is outraged to hear that Marie is to be given to another. He and Montpensier draw swords, but Chabannes stops the fight and tries to reconcile them. The grateful Montpensier takes Chabannes, whose life is in danger since he is now considered an enemy by the Catholics and a deserter by the Huguenots, into his protection. After their marriage the newly-weds, accompanied by Chabannes, travel to Montpensier's castle. On the way Chabannes confesses to Marie his revulsion at the brutality of the religious wars and his remorse over his former part in them, for in the heat of battle, he had killed a pregnant woman.