Rent The Princess of Montpensier (2010)

The Princess of Montpensier (aka La princesse de Montpensier) review by Melissa Orcine - Cinema Paradiso

Marie de Mezieres (Melanie Thierry) is a young woman whose desire to learn equals her beauty. She wants more from the confines of her luxurious life, but this is 16th century France, and women do not have a say on the kind of life they want to lead. Her father forces her to marry the Prince of Montpensier (Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet), in exchange for increased real estate for the family and a meatier political alliance.

Marie becomes the Princess of Montpensier, her marriage a business transaction, her choices nonchalantly discarded. But Marie is truly in love with Duke Henri de Guise (Gaspard Ulliel), a ruffian hungry for power. A religious war between Catholics and Protestants are in progress and to secure Marie’s safety, her prince-husband sends her to live in an isolated estate. There, she is left under the tutelage of Count de Chabannes (Lambert Wilson), and as Marie progresses in her learning, she also realizes that she can be more than just a pawn by men in power.

In fact, it is Marie’s beauty and sexuality that can wield much power over men, and she will use it in every way she can. This is the French film ‘Princess of Montpensier (La princesse de Montpensier)’, directed by veteran director Bertrand Tavernier and based on the 1662 novel of the same name by Madame de Lafayette.

As a historical drama, ‘Princess of Montpensier’ succeeds in depicting old-world France with the opulence of the era, the grand wardrobe, the murky sword fights, and the dirty politics. The film does not romanticize 16th century France; it was a dangerous time to be without pomp and pedigree and especially, to be a woman. In the middle of it all, actress Melanie Thierry plays Marie both with wide-eyed enthusiasm and dark passion.

Her beauty is both a blessing and a curse, having the men in her life yearn for her but are unable to free her from her caged circumstance. For all the love they offer her, it is undeniable that she is treated more as an object, their property instead of a real person.