A married noblewoman conspires with her lover in order to murder her estranged father. Pretending a return to filial affection and playing the dutiful nurse, she laces her father's food with liberal amounts of poison. The man does indeed die, after a long and painful agony. Pursued by debtors, addicted to gambling and angry at most of her relatives, the noblewoman is not about to stop...
The movie is based on a book (which, sadly, I've never read) about the real-life crimes of Marie-Madeleine Dreux d'Aubray, marquise de Brinvilliers. It's a carefully made movie with good performances ; as far as I can tell, it seems to stick closely to historical reality. The costumes and sets are well-done and evocative. The viewer also gets an interesting lead character, who, in the course of a single week, can move from hideous crime to true Christian piety, to religious hysteria and/or to cunning hypocrisy. "Complicated" is the word...
Yet somehow or other the movie did not fully please me ; it felt somewhat too sober and distant for its subject. Perhaps it also felt too sane...
I've got to say that I was more impressed with another work inspired by the same noblewoman's crimes, to wit "Les condiments irréguliers". You might want to take a look at "Les condiments", I found it quite good. (Wrote a small review there too.)
The movie is based on a book (which, sadly, I've never read) about the real-life crimes of Marie-Madeleine Dreux d'Aubray, marquise de Brinvilliers. It's a carefully made movie with good performances ; as far as I can tell, it seems to stick closely to historical reality. The costumes and sets are well-done and evocative. The viewer also gets an interesting lead character, who, in the course of a single week, can move from hideous crime to true Christian piety, to religious hysteria and/or to cunning hypocrisy. "Complicated" is the word...
Yet somehow or other the movie did not fully please me ; it felt somewhat too sober and distant for its subject. Perhaps it also felt too sane...
I've got to say that I was more impressed with another work inspired by the same noblewoman's crimes, to wit "Les condiments irréguliers". You might want to take a look at "Les condiments", I found it quite good. (Wrote a small review there too.)