Tensions between Catholics and the Protestant Huguenots, the two factions fighting for control of France, are at an all-time high. That version is now getting its first commercial run in America (it opens at Chicago's Gene Siskel Film Center this Saturday), and while it will no doubt appear on DVD/Blu-Ray before too long, anyone who has a chance to experience it on the big screen should seize the chance. and Miramax basically abandoned it in order to pin all their end-of-year awards hopes on "Pulp Fiction." Since then, the film has been a bit of an obscurity in these parts but recently, Chereau supervised a 4K restoration of "La Reine Margot" to its original length (one of his last acts before passing away last October) that was screened at last year's Cannes festival as part of its "Cannes Classics" sidebar. They insisted that Chereau chop nearly 20 minutes from its initial 161-minute length and restore a scene that he had already previously dropped so as to emphasize a romantic subplot that they decided to make the focus of its promotional campaign.Īlas, this 145-minute version, newly redubbed " Queen Margot," failed to catch on in the U.S. Though it was admired enough to win both the prize for Best Actress for co-star Virna Lisi and the Special Jury prize (to which one commentator reportedly remarked that it must have been the Menendez jury) and went on to be a hit throughout Europe while winning five Cesar awards (the French equivalent of the Oscar), that was apparently not enough for Miramax Films, which grabbed the American distribution rights, as they did with virtually every foreign and independent film of note at the time.
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