Young Queen Margot finds herself trapped in an arranged marriage amidst a religious war between Catholics and Protestants. She hopes to escape with a new lover, but finds herself imprisoned by her powerful and ruthless family.Alright, I had no idea that this was based on the 1845 historical novel "La Reine Margot" by Dumas. I had no idea he wrote such a book, or that an earlier version had been filmed. And most importantly, I have no idea how accurate any of this is. For the sake of cinema, I suppose it doesn't matter.The truth is at least partially here, because the romance is real and there really was a St. Bartholomew's Day massacre, though I don't think it is very well known today, especially in the United States. (We are woefully ignorant of European history.) Margot (or Margaret of Valois) remains an interesting character, if for no other reason than that she is an ancestor of the current royal family in England.

For those wanting to know the original story, please make the effort to read the book by Alexandre Dumas.This being said, this movie has everything I hate in french cinema ( I myself am french ! ) : it is pretentious, badly interpreted, the original story was largely rewritten and furthermore, I found the movie to be incoherent and incomprehensible. Dumas must be dancing in his grave ! When I see IMDb critics saying that this is a great artistic movie, I wonder if people saw the same movie I did...Topmost, I find it inadmissible that Chereau permits himself to rewrite such a masterpiece written by one of France's most beloved writers, as if what Dumas wrote wasn't good enough to make a decent movie. It is a common flaw in movie making to change the story pretexting that the original material isn't suited for screen play.A few examples : the St Barthelemy night which we have to endure for a long 15 or more minutes in the movie merely takes one page on the 600 of the book...As for the friendship between La Mole and Coconnas ( who are amongst the most interesting characters of the book ) which is at the center of the original material, it is largely omitted in the movie and furthermore is totally incoherent : after fighting to the death and being quite unknown to each other, the fall in each other's arms in one ridiculous scene that had me laugh because it was so bad.Anyways, all this is bad french cinema making, the kind which we would like to stop seeing. Do not bother to waste your time on that piece of trash and rather watch real french cinema d'auteur like Coup de Torchon or Rene Clair's movies which are the real heritage of french movie making that knew about the art, but are from another age which is sadly over.Pityful ! PS : sorry my English isn't good enough to say everything I despise in this movie with the language it would require.

Well, rarely have I seen a period movie of such poor standard. A period piece from 1994, I might add. One would think it had been filmed in the early 80s where stories were often quite naïve.The robes were magnificent and Isabelle Adjani looks like a perfect porcelain doll but the acting, the storytelling, the editing - they were all horrendous.Picture one of those romantic novels with undeveloped shallow characters you enjoyed when you were 12 and make one of them into a movie - this is the excact feeling I got when I watched La Reine Margot. SPOILER (Except without the usual happy endings those novels used to give you of course).The only positive comment this movie will get from me is that Vincent Perez looked incredibly sexy and hot and his final scene was quite heartbreaking. For that alone I will give this poorly made movie 2 out of 10 stars. It really shouldn't get any.

if you haven't met Margot, if you haven't spoken to her then you know nothing of France... The queen who is said to be most intelligent and elegant and beautiful among greedy libertines and fools? The pearl of France? i could not believe my eyes when i watched this film.It was peculiar and very very bad. Perhaps it is because i have read the book and i love it very much. I saw so many blunders and absurd moments.(The Louvre was wooden. What's more you can enter it from the street!And everywhere it is described as elaborate...)The humor in La Reine Margot is irrelevant. Some of the actors were terrible. They were just reciting their lines nothing more. Their mimics had nothing to do with what they were saying...I know the characters are not saints but this movie is all about sex. Margot is described as a slut and a prostitute. There are so many missing moments-this movie has nothing to do with the book.Just the names.