The Princess of Montpensier - Sunday 11th December 5pm

In the run up to Christmas, this week's film, The Princess of Montpensier, should be lighter than last week's. Bertrand Tavernier has been directing films since the 1960s (remember 'Sunday in the Country' or 'Round Midnight'?). He is one of the most prolific and generous of directors, and there is no word that summarizes a "Tavernier film" except, usually, masterful.

The story here is of a noblewoman forced to marry a man she has never met. It is set against the religious wars of the 16th Century in France, but it tells mainly of the  the contradictions between her value as a possession and as an object of desire, between her desires (for both knowledge and passion) and her complete lack of rights to decide for herself.