It stars Mélanie Thierry in the title role, alongside Gaspard Ulliel, Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet, Lambert Wilson and Raphaël Personnaz.

The film mixes fiction and history in the years of bloody conflict known as the Wars of Religion, which not only opposed Catholics with Protestants but also involved bitter power struggles between factions of the nobility and the royal family.

The culminating event is the St Bartholomew's Day massacre in 1572, during which mobs of armed Catholics hunted down and slaughtered thousands of their Protestant neighbours.

Captured by bandits who are about to hang him, he is rescued by a former pupil, the young Prince of Montpensier, who has been fighting for the Catholic side, but who bears a high regard for his former tutor.

On the way Chabannes confesses to Marie his revulsion at the brutality of the religious wars and his remorse over his former part in them, for in the heat of battle, he had killed a pregnant woman.

In the course of their studies the lonely bride and the disillusioned count become close, so much so that the older man, struck by Marie's quickness of mind as well as her beauty, imprudently confesses his hopeless love.

Before Montpensier can take his departure, however, Guise appears on their estate with his cousin, the elegant and polished Duke of Anjou, brother of the childless and ailing King Charles IX, and next in line to the throne.

Marie rides home alone, while the now penniless Chabannes takes a room in a modest inn in exchange for working in the stables.

Montpensier rides to see Marie to give her the news that Chabannes is dead, that Anjou is going away to be king of Poland, and that Guise is marrying a wealthy heiress at Blois the next day.

Marie rides immediately to Blois and tells Guise she is ready to leave Montpensier for him, but he answers that he no longer loves her and must keep his engagement.

Marie remembers the last words to her of Chabannes: “As you have lost the trust of your husband and the heart of your lover, at least you have my true friendship.” Dressed in black, through a snow-covered landscape, she rides to his tomb.Unusual for a Bertrand Tavernier project, the director was not attached from the very start.

[4] The lighting was inspired by film noir, as the director primarily aimed to create an atmosphere of emotional tension, "not imitate paintings or pictorial reconstruction".

[15] François-Guillaume Lorrain reviewed the film for Le Point and was impressed by the adaptation: "Tavernier knows how to give breath, get rid of dust, be modern, without ever sullying the original".

Lorrain complimented the performances of Wilson, Vuillermoz, Personnaz and Leprince-Ringuet, and wrote that the film "reconciles the taste of unbound feelings and sharp blades".

[17] It received the top rating of three stars in Le Parisien, where Marie Sauvion wrote: "The beauty of the images, of the costumes, the delight of a dusted off romance, of an inspiring troupe of actors, of amazing supporting roles ... , all of this contributes to make The Princess of Montpensier an ambitious and poignant film.

[19] Stanley Kauffmann of The New Republic wrote: "The Princess of Montpensier proves again that Tavernier is a master, partly because his mastery extends to sustaining his work without quite the people he needs".