The Bartholomew Night
The Bartholomäusnacht is a French - Italian - German period film by Patrice Chéreau from 1994. The film is based on Alexandre Dumas' novel La Reine Margot ; this is also the original title of the film.
action
France, in 1572: In the 16th century, under King Charles IX. Riots between Catholics and Protestants , the Huguenots . The situation escalated when various princes exploited and intrigued the dangerous internal political situation in the country. In order to master the problems, it was decided to marry the Catholic Margot , daughter of Catherine de Medici and sister of the king, to the Protestant Henry of Navarre in order to bring about peace between the two religious parties. The impulsive Margot is forcibly forced to marry the King of Navarre, whom she soon indicates that he cannot expect any physical affection from her.
The festivities draw thousands of Protestants to Paris , where an attempt to assassinate Huguenot leader Gaspard de Coligny fails. One again begins to spin intrigues at court, where incest, fraud, promiscuity and adultery are the order of the day. In order to forestall a possible uprising, Catherine de Medici, personal advisor to her son and secret ruler in France, instigates a cold-blooded action. A pogrom is said to be the weak-willed Charles IX. preserve government power. On the evening of Bartholomew's Day, she convinced the king that the Protestant leaders must die.
In the early morning hours of August 24, 1572, the name day of the Apostle Bartholomew , the massacre of the French Huguenots began in the city six days after the wedding. Thousands of people fell victim to St. Bartholomew 's Night, including the Protestant leader Coligny. Margot witnesses the atrocities that advance from political murder to rampant bloodbath in the next few days. She saved the Protestant nobleman Joseph Boniface de la Môle , who took refuge in her apartment, from death. The attractive young man becomes the object of Margot's lust, much to the displeasure of two of her brothers: Henri, Duke of Anjou, and François, Duke of Alençon. Margot soon finds herself in a vulnerable position at court, as she has to expose herself to suspicion of sympathizing with the Protestants. In fact, she thwarted one of several assassinations on her husband, Henry III. of Navarre, who turns from a feeble procrastinator to a courageous man and tries to defy the threatening situation at the royal court. Catherine de Medici tries to get rid of Margot's husband with the help of a poisoned book formerly owned by La Môle. Their plans but, thwarted by her son, the king, Henry of Navarre to flee in his Gascon helps home. The poisoned book falls to the ignorant Charles IX. into his hands and leads to his painful death. La Môle's fate is also sealed when he is sent by Henry of Navarre to catch up with Margot. Katharina blames him for the murder of her son; he pays for his rescue attempt with his life. Margot himself manages to flee to Navarre with La Môle's head, while her brother Henri, the Duke of Anjou, is crowned the new King of France.
background
The film is based on the adventure novel of the same name by the French writer Alexandre Dumas (1802–1870), published in 1845, whose work also includes The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Christo . Dumas' novel was the subject of a film adaptation in the 1950s. Directed by Jean Dréville , Jeanne Moreau played the title role in Bartholomew's Night (La Reine Margot) in 1954 . The material, which does not stick exclusively to historical facts (Charles IX does not die of poisoning, but of consumption), was finally adapted again for the screen by director Patrice Chéreau and screenwriter Danièle Thompson . The large-scale production, which brought together the leading actors in France at that time with Isabelle Adjani , Daniel Auteuil , Jean-Hugues Anglade , Vincent Perez and Dominique Blanc , consumed a budget of 53 million DM (approx. 27 million euros ). Other sources give 42 million DM (approx. 21.5 million euros) as production costs. The film was produced by NEF Filmproduktion , Canal Plus and France 2 Cinéma, among others .
The film was shot from May 10, 1993 to December 3, 1993 in the basilica in Saint-Quentin , at Maulnes Castle in Cruzy-le-Châtel, in Bordeaux , Compiègne , Rambouillet and Senlis and in the Palácio Nacional de Mafra in Portugal . During the shooting, the leading actress Isabelle Adjani asked her film partner Jean-Hugues Anglade not to spare her during the scenes of violence. Anglade, the King Charles IX. plays, reluctant to use physical force on Adjani and had to be convinced by her to hit her with more force. In order to appear authentic as Katharine von Medici, the Italian actress Virna Lisi had part of her head hair removed.
reception
Patrice Chéreau's opulent costume drama premiered on May 13, 1994 at the Cannes International Film Festival . The Bartholomew Night quickly became a national event in France and was popular with both critics and the public. Above all, the staging of intrigues at the royal court to the gloomy, apocalyptic images of the massacre was praised, which some critics associated with the Holocaust in the 20th century. The acting performances of Isabelle Adjani, Jean-Hugues Anglade, Virna Lisi and Dominique Blanc have also been praised. Critical voices, however, complained that the film is aimed more at an audience familiar with French history. The characters in the film and their relationships with one another would hardly be explained.
In the USA , the 162-minute film was released in a 18-minute shorter version under the title Queen Margot under the local distributor Miramax . The Bartholomew Night only brought in a sum of around two million US dollars at the box office and was considered a financial flop, although critics attested the shortened version more clarity and clarity. Today one criticizes the abridged version that it misrepresents a number of facts and that the cut was made clumsily.
The film was released in Germany on September 29, 1994 and was released on VHS in 1995 , and four years later on DVD . While the VHS was based on an uncut version, the first DVD version only contained the cut theatrical version. In November 2007 a 3-disc edition DVD was released with the long version, the shortened theatrical version and a bonus disc.
Reviews
Blickpunkt: Film described the film as a “monumental work” that represented “the climax and greatest success of the French cinema year [1994]”. Thanks to “stars like Isabelle Adjani, Daniel Auteuil and Jean-Hugues Anglade” the film is an “atmospherically dense and authentic event”. Urs Jenny wrote in the Spiegel that Chéreaus Bartholomäusnacht was “not a blissful evening at the opera, but a difficult walk that impresses, dismisses and leaves you with confusion”.
The lexicon of international film noted that the film "[h] between the opulent images that evoke history up close [...] also relates to the present" and formulates "an urgent appeal to tolerance and compassion". In addition, the film is formally "of exceptional quality in all areas".
Cinema describes The Bartholomew Night as "[e] Uropean pomp cinema", "powerful and star-studded".
Awards
Bartholomew's Night won the jury award and the award for best actress at the Cannes Film Festival in 1994 , where the film premiered , but was defeated by Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction in the competition for the Palme d' Or . Contrary to all experts' expectations, the trophy for the best actress did not go to Isabelle Adjani, but to Virna Lisi, who was honored for her role as the tyrannical Catherine de Medici. Lisi also received the Nastro d'Argento for best supporting actress in 1995 .
At the award ceremony of the French César film award in 1995, Patrice Chéreau's costume drama was the favorite with twelve nominations and competed with, among others, Krzysztof Kieślowski's drama Three Colors: Red and Luc Besson's thriller Léon - The Professional . The film was the most successful film of the evening with five Césars, but was defeated in the important categories of Best Film and Best Director André Téchiné's drama Wilde Herzen . Also in the categories of Best Supporting Actress (Dominique Blanc), Best Adapted Screenplay , Best Production Design ( Richard Peduzzi , Olivier Radot ), Best Film Music and Best Editing , Chéreaus Film could not hold its own against the competition. Among the honored, however, were Philippe Rousselot ( Best Cinematography ), Moidele Bickel ( Best Costumes ) and the actors Jean-Hugues Anglade ( Best Supporting Actor ), Virna Lisi ( Best Supporting Actress ) and Isabelle Adjani, who won her fourth César as best leading actress set a record. No other actress has been awarded in this category more often than she.
Furthermore, the film was nominated for best foreign language film at the 1995 Golden Globe Awards , but was subject to the Belgian film contribution Farinelli by Gérard Corbiau . At the Academy Awards a few weeks later, Moidele Bickel's costumes were nominated for an Academy Award . A year later, there was another nomination for the British Academy Film Awards for Best Non-English Language Film . There The Bartholomew Night had to admit defeat to the Italian contribution The Postman by Michael Radford . The National Board of Review also selected the film as one of the five best foreign language films of 1994. Moidele Bickel and Virna Lisi were also nominated for the David di Donatello in the categories of “Best Costumes” and “Best Supporting Actress”, respectively.
Aftermath
In 2013 the film was restored and digitized by Pathé .
literature
- Alexandre Dumas: The Bartholomew Night. Structure of the Taschenbuch Verlag, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-7466-1050-8 .
- Danièle Thompson, Patrice Chéreau: La rein Margot. Un film de Patrice Chéreau, d'après le roman d'Alexandre Dumas. Grasset, Paris 1994, ISBN 2-246-49481-8 (French).
Web links
- The St. Bartholomew's Day in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The Bartholomew Night on AllMovie (English)
- Bartholomew Night in the online film database
- Queen Margot atRotten Tomatoes(English)
- Comparison of the cut versions German version - French version Version of The Bartholomew Night at Schnittberichte.com
Individual evidence
- ↑ cf. mediabiz.de
- ↑ Urs Jenny : Paris blood wedding . In: Der Spiegel , September 26, 1994.
- ^ The Bartholomew Night. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ cf. cinema.de
- ↑ La Reine Margot. In: Pathefilms.com. Accessed May 24, 2020 (French).