Event Description
She is beautiful, she is Catholic, she is the King’s sister, her name is Marguerite de Valois. Her brother has nicknamed her Margot. Henri de Navarre is Protestant and said to be ill-mannered, unshaven and to smell of garlic and sweat. They are wed by force.
It is motivated by political considerations: they need to reconcile France, torn apart by religious wars. Six days after the marriage at the Notre Dame Cathedral is the Saint Bartholomew Day massacre of the Huguenots. In the middle of this night of horror, a young man wounded by several sword injuries frantically knocks on Margot’s door; La Môle because he is Protestant must die like all the others. Margot hides him, nurses him and grows to love him. That night everything is thrown into confusion.
In adapting the accepted historically inaccurate novel by Alexandre Dumas, Chéreau’s long association with theatre and opera reaches its zenith, culminating in one of the most spectacularly overblown sequences in French cinema: the bloody Huguenot massacre of 1572. In attempting to portray one of the most chaotic and violent periods of French history, the director knowingly takes liberties with the already tainted source material. You have been warned!
English title: Queen Margot
Director: Patrice Chéreau
Release date: 1994
Lavish historical drama/literary adaption
Running time: 2hrs 39mins
Certificate: 18
French with English subtitles
Show times
Sunday 14 June 2026, 3.15pm
Sunday 14 June 2026, 6.45pm
