In an effort to effect a reconciliation, the Queen Mother, Catherine de Medici, arranged a marriage between her daughter Margot and the Protestant Henri of Navarre.
Margot (Isabelle Adjani) and Henri (Daniel Auteuil), sumptuously dressed (the mind boggles at just how much Adjani's dress must have cost), kneel in the cathedral while a chorus the size of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sings in the background.
There is an amusing bit where Margot, who refuses to consummate the marriage with Henri, goes out into the street to look for a man with whom to spend her wedding night.
"QueenMargot" is another filthy period picture — that is to say, one in which everyone seems sorely in need of a bath.
But Catherine really has other power plays up her sleeve, and the film's centerpiece is a horrifying depiction of the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre she engineers, leaving in its wake the bodies of hundreds of Protestants in the streets of Paris (and thousands more on the outskirts of the city).
Meanwhile, Margot and Henri reluctantly perpetuate their in-name-only marriage, and the film spends a lot of time with dark and dreary court intrigue, back-stabbing, double-crossing and plenty of gory violence.
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