Bertrand Tavernier’s The Princess of Montpensier has been released.  The film focuses on the life of a young noblewoman at the Valois court during the French Wars of Religion.

The film is an adaptation of a classic early French novel by Marie-Madeleine Pioche de La Vergne, comtesse de La Fayette, published in 1662.  The novel was written during the early reign of Louis XIV, but refers to historical events of the French Wars of Religion of 1562-1629.  The Bibliothèque Nationale de France’s Gallica database has the first edition available for download as a .pdf file.

Reviews of the new film adaptation of The Princess of Montpensier are available at NPR and New York Times websites.  Thanks to Greg Bereiter and Bethany Aidroos, graduate students in early modern French history at Northern Illinois University, for these links.

I missed The Princess of Montpensier at the Landmark Theatre in Chicago, but recently saw it on DVD.  I will post more information on the film soon.