THE PRINCESS OF MONTPENSIER
aka LA PRINCESSE DE MONTPENSIER

Year: 2010
USA: IFC Films
UK: Optimum Releasing
Cast: Melanie Thierry, Lambert Wilson, Gregoire Leprince-Ringuet, Gaspard Ulliel, Raphael Personnaz, Anatole De Bodinat, Eric Rulliat, Samuel Theis, Michel Vuillermoz, Judith Chemla, Phillipe Magnan, Cesar Domboy, Jean-Pol Dubois, Florence Thomassin
Director: Bertrand Tavernier
Country: France
Language: French (English subtitles)
USA & UK: 139 mins
USA Rated: Unrated
UK Certificate: 15 contains moderate sex
USA Release Date: 15 April 2011 (Limited Release)
UK Release Date: 8 July 2011 (Limited Release)


Synopsis

1562. In France, during the reign of Charles IX, the wars of religion are raging...

Marie de Mezieres, heiress to one of the kingdom's greatest fortunes, loves the young Duc de Guise, known in the annals of history as Le Balafre, "Scarface". She believes he loves her back. To increase his family's prestige, her father, the Marquis de Mezieres forces Marie to marry the Prince de Montpensier, whom she has never met.

The Prince is summoned by Charles IX to join the war against the Protestants. With the whole country turned into a bloody battlefield, he sends his young wife to Champigny, one of his most secluded castles, in the company of the Comte de Chabannes, his friend and former tutor. The Prince asks Chabannes to complete the Princess's education so that she can take her place at court one day.

In unhappy isolation at Champigny, Marie tries to forget the passionate longing she still feels for Guise. Fate and the changing course of the war lead Guise and the Duc d'Anjou, the future Henri III , to stay at Champigny shortly after Montpensier has joined Marie there. In turn, Anjou falls in love with the Princess, to whose charms Chabannes has also succumbed.

A violent, passionate rivalry develops with Marie as the prize.