Dumas, A. Die Bartholomäusnacht. ( Königin Margot)

August 1572. For ten years a murderous religious war has been raging in France between Catholics and Huguenots. Catherine de Medici, the queen mother, wants temporary peace in the country for political reasons. Surprisingly, she marries her 19-year-old daughter Marguerite to the young Protestant King Henri de Navarre. But the wedding celebrations, for which nearly 10,000 Huguenots had flocked to Paris, became a trap for them: on the night of 24 August, the "St Bartholomew's Night", thousands of them were massacred, and the wave of murder continued throughout the country. But this eerie cloak-and-dagger play in the gloomy corridors of the Louvre is illuminated by strong passions. The easy-going Marguerite - soon to be called Queen Margot - whose beauty and education all contemporary poets have sung the praises of, at first cares nothing for Henri, that nature boy from the Pyrenees who "stinks of garlic at ten paces"; she loves the noble La Môle, a Protestant she rescued from the massacre. Her royal husband, who survived the night of blood but whose life is still threatened by Catherine the poisoner, is simultaneously infatuated with the young Charlotte de Sauves - who is in turn Catherine's maid of honour. Such passions create dramatic entanglements, and yet they are historically authenticated. Alexandre Dumas studied the historical sources carefully before filling the truth with poetry and adding that fine dash of irony that makes his novels so readable. Protestants from all over France have flocked to Paris, the power metropolis of the Catholics, for the wedding celebrations of their young king Henri de Navarre with the 19-year-old Marguerite de Valois. The festival becomes a trap for them: on the night of 24 August 1572, the "St Bartholomew's Night", thousands are massacred in the gloomy corridors of the Louvre and in the streets of the city. The beautiful, easy-going Marguerite, called Margot by the people, gets caught up in the maelstrom of these confrontations, in the conflict between power and love, murderous reasons of state and deep passion.
Patrice Chéreau has masterfully filmed the dramatic material of Dumas' novel, with Isabelle Adjani in the role of Margot. "We want to show that this pagan and fanatical period was full of religiosity and sensuality, death and carnality went hand in hand, guilt and sin intermingled and death had no meaning." (Chéreau)