Tavernier’s Fate includes ‘La Princesse de Montpensier’

You won’t find veteran filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier anywhere close to swampy Cajun backwoods (In the Electric Mist) or for that matter, return to the thriller format, instead his next pic is set in 1562 and includes matters of the heart. Set to begin production later this month, La Princesse de Montpensier will see Mélanie Thierry in the lead with Lambert Wilson, Gaspard Ulliel, Louis Garrel and Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet also joining the pic. Paradis Films’ Eric Heuman and Marc Silam are producing.

Based on a short story by Madame de La Fayette (published in 1662), co-scripted by Tavernier and Jean Cosmos, La Princesse de Montpensier is a tale of the passions and tragic fate of a princess, a rich heiress of a French kingdom under threat in the wars of religion of 1562. The focal point of La Fayette’s work is the love Mlle de Mézières feels for the duke de Guise and how she feels forced to marry the prince of Montpensier despite still being in love with the duke.