The Princess of Montpensier ( La princesse de Montpensier ) ( Die Prinzessin von Montpensier )

The Princess of Montpensier (Blu-Ray) (*)

$30.99

Original Title: La princesse de Montpensier
Alternate Title: Die Prinzessin von Montpensier
Screened, competed or awarded at:
Cannes Film Festival

Language Selections:
English ( Subtitles )
French ( Dolby Digital 5.1 )
French ( Dolby DTS-HD Master Audio )

Product Origin/Format:
United Kingdom ( Blu-Ray/Region B )

Running Time:
140 min

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen (2.35:1)

Special Features:
Cast/Crew Interview(s)
Interactive Menu
Making Of
Scene Access

Movie filmed in 2010 and produced in:
France ( France, Benelux )
Germany ( Germany, Central Europe )

Directed By:
Bertrand Tavernier

Written By:
Jean Cosmos
Madame de La Fayette

Actors:
Mélanie Thierry ..... Princesse Marie de Montpensier
Lambert Wilson ..... Comte de Chabannes
Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet ..... Prince de Montpensier
Gaspard Ulliel ..... Henri de Guise
Raphaël Personnaz ..... Duc d'Anjou
Anatole de Bodinat ..... Joyeuse
Eric Rulliat ..... Quelus
Samuel Theis ..... La Valette
Michel Vuillermoz ..... Duc de Montpensier
Judith Chemla ..... Catherine de Guise
Philippe Magnan ..... Marquis de Mézières
César Domboy ..... Mayenne
Jean-Pol Dubois ..... Cardinal de Lorraine
Florence Thomassin ..... Marquise de Mézières
Christine Brücher ..... Duchesse de Montpensier

Synopsis:

The Princess Of Montpensier based on a story by Madame de Lafayette, directed by Bertrand Tavernier, starring Mélanie Thierry, Gaspard Ulliel, Lambert Wilson and Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet. In Sixteen Century France a savage religious war is ripping the country apart. Carnage, corruption and mayhem stalk the land, taking lives and shaping history. Amidst the tragedy, loss and power struggles of war, a young aristocratic heiress by the name of Marie DeMezieres has fallen passionately in love with the dashing Henri DeGuise. But due to the political ambitions of her manipulative and controlling father Marie has been forced into an arranged marriage to the Prince of Montpensier. Between duty and passion can Marie fight her fate to reclaim her destiny? The Princess of Montpensier is a vivid and compelling historic drama. A sweeping epic of love, rivalry, intrigue and conflict, told in a language that can only be described as pure cinema.

France, 1562. Against a background of the savage Catholic/Protestant wars, Marie de Mézières (Mélanie Thierry), a beautiful young aristocrat, and the rakish Henri de Guise (Gaspard Ulliel), fall in love, but Marie's father has promised her hand in marriage to the Prince of Montpensier (Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet). When he is called away to battle, her husband leaves her in the care of Count Chabannes (Lambert Wilson), an aging nobleman with a disdain for warfare. As he experiences his own forbidden desire for Marie, Chabannes must also protect her from the dangerously corrupt court dominated by Catherine de Medici. Director Tavernier translates Madame de Lafayette's 1622 novella into a bracingly intelligent and moving evocation of the terrible conflict between duty and passion. Though the themes are classic, Tavernier, with the cinematographer Bruno de Keyzer's vivid landscapes and Philippe Sarde's pulsing score, makes them feel passionately, urgently contemporary.

There are times when the lights are low and the bodices have been gently loosened that 'The Princess of Montpensier,' a rousing amalgam of ambition, moods and genre conceits, looks like one of those old-fashioned diversions in which swords clang as bosoms heave with sweet passion. The pretty bosom of the title character played by Mélanie Thierry tends to swell rather gently, but it also rides so high in her dresses that it evokes the temptations displayed in the windows of Parisian patisseries. The French director Bertrand Tavernier deploys some smart ideas in this film, a period story about wars on the battlefield and those closer to home, but there's something a bit goatish in his attention to some female charms. The movie's opening image; a traveling shot of dying and dead men scattered across a field; shows a darker, more somber side of Mr. Tavernier.

This product was added to our catalog on Thursday 10 November, 2011.

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