In other news, I spent part of yesterday afternoon out with
I spent a relaxing Saturday evening for the most part, and watched a movie off my To Watch Queue (TWQ) called La Princesse de Montpensier (2010). This movie is a 2010 French period romance film directed by Bertrand Tavernier, inspired by a short story anonymously published by Madame de La Fayette. It stars Mélanie Thierry in the title role, alongside Gaspard Ulliel, Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet, Lambert Wilson and Raphaël Personnaz. The story takes place in the French aristocracy during the Wars of Religion, and focuses on a young woman who is forced into marriage while passionately in love with another man.
I'm not going to spoil the movie for anyone here, but I will say that I thought the film was excellent. The costumes, the scenes, the film-making in this movie are superb, and the cast of actors (notably Mélanie Thierry) does a wonderful job in the movie, vividly portraying Marie de Montpensier as a woman trapped in a situation that she cannot control due to her own feelings. Court intrigues, duels, secret meetings, and the power of nobility push the story to a surprising but well designed end, and shows that in the end, passion of the heart can be destructive. I would definitely recommend the movie, which clocks in at 140 minutes in length, and is quite entertaining, although a couple of parts in the middle seemed to drag a bit.