The Princess of Montpensier

• 12th Oct 2011

This period film follows the romantic entanglements of one Marie de Mezieres who in 1562 France is forced by her father to marry the Prince of Montpensier. But her heart belongs to her cousin, Duc de Guise, and she also catches the eye of her tutor Comte de Chabannes and the Duc d’Anjou, the future King Henry III. Getting lost? Wait until you see the film. It does take a while to get your head around all the characters in this historical epic and for the first half hour of the film you definitely have to stay focused on who all the players are. And the religious wars are in full swing to the backdrop of the main story which also aren’t particularly well explained. So if you’re not up to scratch on your French history then you might struggle a bit with this film.

In saying that, it still remains a gorgeous film. The period detail is perfect as you’d expect, with set, costumes and production design all immaculately recreated. The cast all look wonderful but some of them do struggle to fully round out their characters which may be more trouble with the script rather than performance. Melanie Theirry  as Mezieres certainly looks the part and it’s understandable why all these men fall at her feet. But there’s a distinct lack of chemistry between her and her two leading men, Gaspard Ulliel and Gregorie Leprince-Ringuet as Guise and the Prince, respectively. Both come across as a bit too wet to really ignite a fiery romantic tale. Much better is Lambert Wilson (best known for the Matrix sequels) who, while uncannily resembling Jeremy Irons, provides the film’s backbone as Chabannes, the friend and teacher of the Prince, who’s put down his sword and retreated from the war and spends time with the princess. However, despite his charming performance, he’s sucker punched by the script by having his character fall madly in love with the princess within a matter of days. It completely goes against the character for him to blurt out that he’s in love with her. He may well have been smitten with her but the film would have been better served if this aspect was left ambiguous. This subplot is dropped just as quickly as it was been picked up and it never comes across in Lambert’s performance that he’s madly in love with the girl. Meanwhile Raphael Personnaz gets probably the best role in the film as the deceptive Duc d’Anjou. You may remember Vincent Cassel’s performance as this prince in Elizabeth, and Personnaz leaves a big impression as well, if a little more dastardly and less camp than Cassel’s portrayal.

The sets all provide a lot of beautiful landscapes for the camera to linger on creating a nice mystical mood that’s common to a lot of these types of period films. The battle scenes are well filmed with the camera swooping around wildly and putting the viewer right in the middle of the action. But with the cameras working so elegantly, the fight sequences often come off a little stilted and staged. In particular, Lambert’s last battle doesn’t convince. A little more time was clearly needed to create the choreography of the battles.

All in all it’s a sturdy enough period drama. And considering director Bertrand Tavernier is in his 70s, he’s crafted quite a sprightly, fast-moving tale. But the romantic triangle doesn’t have the spark needed to keep the interest going and the film pales in comparison to the much darker and grittier La Reine Margot which covered much of the same period and characters represented here.

Extras:

Making of documentary that follows a number of aspects throughout the production. It pays particular interest to director Bertrand Tavernier and his process of working. The actors enjoyed his ability to be open to ideas and speak favourably of him. At different times we get to see Tavernier taking on suggestions and at other times we get to see him having a hissy fit and storming of set. An honest, enjoyable documentary on filmmaking.

Stewart McLaren