The Princess of Montpensier

2010

139 mins

Directed by Bertrand Tavernier
85%
54%
Action
Drama
Romance

Romantic and political drama set in the high courts of 16th century France, against the backdrop of the savage Catholic/Protestant war under the reign... More

Romantic and political drama set in the high courts of 16th century France, against the backdrop of the savage Catholic/Protestant war under the reign of Charles IX. Follows the love triangle between the Princess, the Prince and her tutor. From veteran director Bertrand Tavernier (‘Round Midnight).

Beautiful aristocrat Marie de Mézières (Mélanie Thierry) is arranged to marry Prince de Montpensier (Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet) by her father, in an effort to secure a position at court. But the new Princess of Montpensier is haunted by a rakish suitor from her childhood (Gaspard Ulliel) and advised by an aging nobleman (Lambert Wilson), who harbours his own forbidden desire for her. Marie struggles to stay alive amongst this corrupt web of duty, passion, religion and war.

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The Princess of Montpensier | Ratings & Reviews

85_%66 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes® rating
54_%6,648 reviews
Audience score rating

"Like its heroine, has both beauty and brains and offers a portrait of renaissance life leagues more accurate than the most historical epics."

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Variety

"Robustly acted and dynamically photographed; Tavernier is equally adept at directing intimate encounters as choreographing savage battles, conveying the sense of a society tearing itself apart."

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Total Film

"Tavernier deploys some smart ideas in this film... but there's something a bit goatish in his attention to some female charms."

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The New York Times

"It gallops along as elegantly and confidently as the horsemen we see in the opening scene - part bodice-ripper, part patrician soap opera, and part romantic tragedy."

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The Guardian

"Enters the field of the swashbuckling romance, so littered with our memories of other films, and conquers it with a startling freshness."

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Roger Ebert

"Epic and intimate, historical and contemporary, moving and thought-provoking."

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Los Angeles Times

"It's clear that Tavernier has set out to show the potency and relevance of a classic love story and that period romance is by no means a dead genre. On this evidence, he has a point."

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