Pouting and passion in a French historical romance
La Princesse de Montpensier (The princess of Montpensier) is a French historical drama directed by Bertrand Tavernier. It’s not his usual sort of subject. Recent films have included Holy Lola about adoption in Asia (2004) or In the Electric Mist (2009), a detective story set in the southern USA.
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La Princesse de Montpensier bears all the hallmarks of experienced film-making, especially as Tavernier chose to work with the charm of four up-and-coming young actors in the main roles.
They are all supposed to be about 20-years-old. The title role is played by Mélanie Thierry, a former model with an appropriate pout and smiling, sorrowful or angry eyes.
She’s appeared in 10 films over 13 years and that, no doubt, helped her meet the requirement of showing a different facet of the same woman towards four men in love with her. One she is passionate about - Guise (Gaspard Ulliel). One to whom she shows affection and respect (Lambert Wilson), one who is the husband forced upon her (Grégoire Le Prince-Ringuet), and one to whom she owes allegiance (Raphaël Personnaz).
Shot in the magnificent and colourful Auvergne region of central France, La princesse de Montpensier is set in the 16th-century – which provides a good excuse for sumptuous costumes. It is based on a novel by the French 17th-century writer, Madame de Lafayette. Courtly writing in those days was quite something, and has surely inspired many a soap opera on television, containing all the ingredients for a gripping tale: love, jealousy, greed, etc. etc.
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