A wide-ranging, energetic period-piece because he moves into the beloved King Henri IV of France, tracing the rise of the Protestant Henry of Navarre. The epic of director Jo Baier is just a entertaining adventure, albeit one having more than a tiny blood shed and ordinary bawdy sexual interludes. In war, Catholics and Protestant Huguenots were in late 16th-century France. Seeking serenity, the dowager queen, Catherine de Medici summons Henry for her daddy to have him wed her daughter, uniting the two warring factions. However, the Catholics slaughter the Protestant wedding guests at that which is known as the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre and Henry-now married-must utilize all of his guile to stay alive and go for the throne. [Palm Springs International Film Festival was Written by by ]