{ "id": "epeshvrrfx", "slug": "queen-margot", "title": "Queen Margot", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical", "label": "War and historical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical.historical-dramas-and-epics", "label": "Historical dramas and epics", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical.historical-dramas-and-epics" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical.historical-dramas-and-epics.alpha-m-to-z", "label": "Titles M to Z", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical.historical-dramas-and-epics.alpha-m-to-z" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical.historical-dramas-and-epics.alpha-m-to-z.alpha-m-to-sa", "label": "Titles M to Sa", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical.historical-dramas-and-epics.alpha-m-to-z.alpha-m-to-sa" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000: War and historical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical", "path": [ { "id": "geo.weu", "label": "Western Europe", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical", "label": "War and historical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Queen Margot (La Reine Margot) is Patrice Chéreau's 1994 French historical drama adapted from Alexandre Dumas's novel, starring Isabelle Adjani, Daniel Auteuil, and Virna Lisi; it depicts the 1572 St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre and won the Cannes Jury Prize and five Césars.", "snippet": "Queen Margot (La Reine Margot) is Patrice Chéreau's 1994 French historical drama adapted from Alexandre Dumas's novel, starring Isabelle Adjani, Daniel Auteuil, and Virna Lisi; it depicts the 1572 St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre and won the Cannes Jury Prize and five Césars.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical.historical-dramas-and-epics.alpha-m-to-z.alpha-m-to-sa", "markdown": "# Queen Margot\n\n**Queen Margot** (French: *La Reine Margot*) is a 1994 French historical drama film directed by Patrice Chéreau, adapted from [Alexandre Dumas](https://www.edgepedia.org/alexandre-dumas)'s 1845 novel of the same name. It stars [Isabelle Adjani](https://www.edgepedia.org/isabelle-adjani) as Marguerite de Valois, the Catholic princess married by political arrangement to the Protestant Henri de Navarre ([Daniel Auteuil](https://www.edgepedia.org/daniel-auteuil)) in August 1572, days before the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre.[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/la-reine-margot/) The film won the Jury Prize at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival, where Virna Lisi took the Best Actress award for her Catherine de Médicis, and it went on to win five César Awards in 1995.[2](https://elpais.com/icon-design/2024-11-19/la-sangrienta-historia-del-palacio-portugues-que-quiso-rivalizar-con-el-vaticano-45000-personas-lo-construyeron-y-1400-murieron-a-pie-de-obra.html) • [3](https://www.malavidafilms.com/cinema/reinemargot)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director and writers | Patrice Chéreau (1944–2013), screenplay co-written with Danièle Thompson, from Alexandre Dumas's novel[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/la-reine-margot/) |\n| Principal cast | Isabelle Adjani (Margot), Daniel Auteuil (Henri de Navarre), Jean-Hugues Anglade (Charles IX), Vincent Perez (La Môle), Virna Lisi (Catherine de Médicis)[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/la-reine-margot/) |\n| Setting | France, 1572, during the Wars of Religion; the plot centers on the forced marriage of Margot and Henri de Navarre and the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre six days later[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/la-reine-margot/) |\n| Budget | Planned at 120 million francs, ultimately closer to 140 million; one of the most expensive French film productions of its era[4](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm-10054/secrets-tournage/) • [5](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/summer-reads/article/2025/09/06/isabelle-adjani-the-masterfully-ambiguous-queen-margot_6745098_183.html) |\n| Production time | Five years of preparation; 28 weeks of shooting between May and December 1993[6](https://www.cinematheque.fr/article/958.html) • [7](https://www.lemonde.fr/series-d-ete/article/2025/08/21/isabelle-adjani-en-reine-margot-sous-l-il-d-un-patrice-chereau-sceptique-puis-epate_6633119_3451060.html) |\n| Awards | Jury Prize and Best Actress (Virna Lisi) at Cannes 1994; five Césars in 1995, including Best Actress[2](https://elpais.com/icon-design/2024-11-19/la-sangrienta-historia-del-palacio-portugues-que-quiso-rivalizar-con-el-vaticano-45000-personas-lo-construyeron-y-1400-murieron-a-pie-de-obra.html) • [3](https://www.malavidafilms.com/cinema/reinemargot) |\n| French admissions | About 2 million, insufficient to recoup its cost in France alone[5](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/summer-reads/article/2025/09/06/isabelle-adjani-the-masterfully-ambiguous-queen-margot_6745098_183.html) |\n| Running time | 159 minutes (Cannes and French theatrical version)[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/la-reine-margot/) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Story\n\nThe action opens in August 1572. France is torn by the wars between Catholics and Protestants, and Catherine de Médicis arranges the marriage of her Catholic daughter Marguerite de Valois, nicknamed Margot, to the Protestant Henri de Navarre as a political maneuver to reconcile the French. Six days after the wedding at Notre-Dame, the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre breaks out. During that night of horror, the wounded Huguenot nobleman La Môle pounds on Margot's door; she hides him, nurses him, and grows to love him.[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/la-reine-margot/) • [8](https://adrc-asso.org/patrimoine/diffusion/films-et-cycles/la-reine-margot)\n\nChéreau described what drew him to the material as the trajectory of a king's daughter, a king's sister, and a king's wife who moves from the camp of the oppressors to that of the oppressed. In the spirit of [Luchino Visconti](https://www.edgepedia.org/luchino-visconti)'s *The Damned* (1969), he wanted, in his own words, \"to tell the story of a monstrous family within which all crimes go unpunished.\"[5](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/summer-reads/article/2025/09/06/isabelle-adjani-the-masterfully-ambiguous-queen-margot_6745098_183.html) He also compared the story's clan logic to gangster films: \"if one film helped me, it was not a historical film but Coppola's *The Godfather*.\"[8](https://adrc-asso.org/patrimoine/diffusion/films-et-cycles/la-reine-margot)\n\n## Production\n\n**A five-year gestation.** Chéreau, known above all as a theater director, had scored his first cinema success with his third film, *L'Homme blessé*, in 1982. Screenwriter Danièle Thompson, accustomed to large popular successes as the writer for her father Gérard Oury, suggested the Dumas novel he did not know. The screenplay went through successive versions between 1990 and April 1993, on the eve of shooting, and Chéreau's preparatory reflection produced a written \"note d'intention\" used to convince financiers to back a very large budget.[6](https://www.cinematheque.fr/article/958.html) • [5](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/summer-reads/article/2025/09/06/isabelle-adjani-the-masterfully-ambiguous-queen-margot_6745098_183.html)\n\nThe film was written for Isabelle Adjani, and her indecision shaped the project's calendar. Chéreau read her the synopsis aloud at the end of 1989; over the four years that followed, her answer was, in the words of his assistant Jérôme Enrico, \"yes, then no, then nothing.\" Preparation started three times and stopped when the actress withdrew, and Chéreau at one point considered replacing her with the French-speaking American actress [Jodie Foster](https://www.edgepedia.org/jodie-foster), an idea the producer Claude Berri rejected: the role was written for Adjani.[6](https://www.cinematheque.fr/article/958.html) • [5](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/summer-reads/article/2025/09/06/isabelle-adjani-the-masterfully-ambiguous-queen-margot_6745098_183.html)\n\n**A large-scale co-production.** The film was a French-German-Italian co-production initiated by Claude Berri through Renn Productions, with France 2 Cinéma, D.A. Films, RCS Produzione TV, and NEF Filmproduktion.[6](https://www.cinematheque.fr/article/958.html) • [9](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/52784.html) Planned at 120 million francs, the budget ultimately ran closer to 140 million.[4](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm-10054/secrets-tournage/) Shooting lasted 28 weeks, from [May to December](https://www.edgepedia.org/may-to-december) 1993, between France and Portugal, followed by an equally long editing period.[7](https://www.lemonde.fr/series-d-ete/article/2025/08/21/isabelle-adjani-en-reine-margot-sous-l-il-d-un-patrice-chereau-sceptique-puis-epate_6633119_3451060.html) • [6](https://www.cinematheque.fr/article/958.html)\n\nThe crew combined Chéreau's regular theater collaborators with established film technicians: cinematography by Philippe Rousselot, music by [Goran Bregović](https://www.edgepedia.org/goran-bregovic), sets by Richard Peduzzi and Olivier Radot, and costumes by Moidele Bickel.[9](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/52784.html) Several cast members, including [Vincent Perez](https://www.edgepedia.org/vincent-perez), Dominique Blanc, and Pascal Greggory, had begun at the Théâtre des Amandiers in Nanterre while Chéreau was its director.[4](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm-10054/secrets-tournage/) Chéreau deliberately avoided historical authenticity in favor of what served the film: \"The costumes are not authentic, they are right, for the film; the same for the dialogues.\"[8](https://adrc-asso.org/patrimoine/diffusion/films-et-cycles/la-reine-margot)\n\n## Release and versions\n\nThe film premiered in competition at Cannes in May 1994 in a provisional cut assembled hastily for the festival, where it won the Jury Prize. Chéreau then re-edited it, cutting 20 minutes for its United States release; exceptionally, this new version was itself released in French cinemas on 16 December 1994.[6](https://www.cinematheque.fr/article/958.html) The international version also reinserted a scene between Margot and La Môle at the request of the American distributor Miramax, which wanted to develop the relationship between the two characters.[10](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm%3D10054.html) A longer television version was later broadcast in France in two parts, *La Main de Dieu* and *La Cuillère du diable*.[11](https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/InterNews/LeMonde/issues/1999/lm991010.pdf)\n\nIn France the film drew about 2 million admissions, a figure the producer Claude Berri had sketched in advance on a restaurant tablecloth and which still fell short of recouping the budget on the French market alone; funding had to be secured in Italy and Germany.[5](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/summer-reads/article/2025/09/06/isabelle-adjani-the-masterfully-ambiguous-queen-margot_6745098_183.html) • [4](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm-10054/secrets-tournage/)\n\n## Reception and legacy\n\nAt Cannes, the Jury Prize went to the film and the Best Actress award to [Virna Lisi](https://www.edgepedia.org/virna-lisi) for her Catherine de Médicis, a result widely read as a snub to Adjani, who had arrived with a film built to win both the [Palme d'Or](https://www.edgepedia.org/palme-dor) and the acting prize.[2](https://elpais.com/icon-design/2024-11-19/la-sangrienta-historia-del-palacio-portugues-que-quiso-rivalizar-con-el-vaticano-45000-personas-lo-construyeron-y-1400-murieron-a-pie-de-obra.html) • [5](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/summer-reads/article/2025/09/06/isabelle-adjani-the-masterfully-ambiguous-queen-margot_6745098_183.html) The film then took five Césars in 1995: Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Cinematography, and Best Costume Design.[3](https://www.malavidafilms.com/cinema/reinemargot)\n\nCritics emphasized its violence and operatic intensity. Roger Ebert, reviewing the American cut, called it a big-budget, prestigious French production and praised Adjani's performance while finding the visual style punishing.[12](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/queen-margot-1994) David Ansen of *Newsweek* described it as \"Romeo and Juliet knee-deep in carnage, staged with Jacobean fury, lurid sensuality and high style.\"[13](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/queen_margot) On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an 82% critics score from 34 reviews.[13](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/queen_margot)\n\nThe film has remained a reference point for screen depictions of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre and of Catherine de Médicis's \"black legend,\" and it was not the first adaptation of Dumas's novel; an earlier French version directed by Jean Dréville from a scenario associated with Abel Gance was released in 1954.[14](https://acta.bibl.u-szeged.hu/78757/1/fidele_signaculum_2022_1077-1091.pdf) • [11](https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/InterNews/LeMonde/issues/1999/lm991010.pdf) A 4K restoration by Pathé, made for the film's 30th anniversary, was screened at the Lumière Festival in 2024 and re-released in French cinemas on 1 October 2025 by Malavida as part of a Chéreau retrospective.[8](https://adrc-asso.org/patrimoine/diffusion/films-et-cycles/la-reine-margot)\n\n## References\n\n1. [LA REINE MARGOT (QUEEN MARGOT), Festival de Cannes](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/la-reine-margot/)\n2. [Lujo grandioso y 1.400 muertos..., El País (2024)](https://elpais.com/icon-design/2024-11-19/la-sangrienta-historia-del-palacio-portugues-que-quiso-rivalizar-con-el-vaticano-45000-personas-lo-construyeron-y-1400-murieron-a-pie-de-obra.html)\n3. [LA REINE MARGOT, Malavida Films](https://www.malavidafilms.com/cinema/reinemargot)\n4. [Anecdotes du film La Reine Margot, AlloCiné](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm-10054/secrets-tournage/)\n5. [Isabelle Adjani, the masterfully ambiguous Queen Margot, Le Monde (2025)](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/summer-reads/article/2025/09/06/isabelle-adjani-the-masterfully-ambiguous-queen-margot_6745098_183.html)\n6. [Les archives de la Cinémathèque racontent l'histoire de « La Reine Margot », La Cinémathèque française](https://www.cinematheque.fr/article/958.html)\n7. [Isabelle Adjani en Reine Margot sous l'œil d'un Patrice Chéreau sceptique, puis épaté, Le Monde (2025)](https://www.lemonde.fr/series-d-ete/article/2025/08/21/isabelle-adjani-en-reine-margot-sous-l-il-d-un-patrice-chereau-sceptique-puis-epate_6633119_3451060.html)\n8. [La Reine Margot, ADRC](https://adrc-asso.org/patrimoine/diffusion/films-et-cycles/la-reine-margot)\n9. [La Reine Margot (Patrice Chéreau, 1993), La Cinémathèque française](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/52784.html)\n10. [La Reine Margot, Film 1994, AlloCiné](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm%3D10054.html)\n11. [Le Monde, 10 October 1999 (PDF archive)](https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/InterNews/LeMonde/issues/1999/lm991010.pdf)\n12. [Queen Margot movie review, RogerEbert.com (1994)](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/queen-margot-1994)\n13. [Queen Margot, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/queen_margot)\n14. [Representing the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre in Literature and Film (2022)](https://acta.bibl.u-szeged.hu/78757/1/fidele_signaculum_2022_1077-1091.pdf)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › War and historical films (individual works) › Historical dramas and epics › Titles M to Z › Titles M to Sa*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/queen-margot", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/queen-margot.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Queen Margot\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/queen-margot. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Queen Margot](https://www.edgepedia.org/queen-margot)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/queen-margot](https://www.edgepedia.org/queen-margot). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Queen Margot\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/queen-margot. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Queen Margot is Patrice Chéreau's 1994 French historical drama adapted from Alexandre Dumas's novel, starring Isabelle Adjani, Daniel Auteuil, and Virna Lisi; it depicts the 1572 St." }