Diane - Kurtisane von Frankreich

Lana Turner was elegant and beautiful as the French courtesan, wearing through most of the motion picture dramatic black costumes... She came to the court of King Francis I to plead for the life of her husband, Count Louis de Brézé who was falsely accused of plotting against the King...

Count de Brézé (Torin Thatcher) suspected his release by an act of infidelity...

Francis I (Pedro Armendariz) was the King who in his person and actions combined the romantic ideal of the medieval knight-king and the refined humanism and art of the Renaissance... When he required Diane's presence, the Count felt his suspicious confirmed... Obviously he was wrong!

However, the real reason Diane has been called is to teach the King's, Prince Henri (Roger Moore), the graces of court life in preparation for his marriage to Catherine de Médici (Marisa Pavan). Impressed by her beauty, charm and political sageness, as well as her ability to cope with his son, the King keeps her at court...

Prince Henri fell violently in love with her...

When the King is killed in battle, Diane became mistress of Henry, now King of France... Throughout his reign, Diane held court as Queen of France in all but name... The real Queen was forced to live in comparative obscurity... Catherine soon comes to hate the woman who is her husband's real love...

But Henri's reign was short, due to Gondi (Henri Daniell) treachery...

Directed by David Miller, the film carried faithfully the 16th Century environment with an impressive stag hunt, an exciting encounter with a wild boar and a thrilling climactic jousting tournament...

Sir Cedric Hardwicke played Ruggiere, the master of astrology, master of the art of predicting... He gave the Queen of France much to think over when she visited him, and in that tournament he murmured: 'What must be... Will be!'

If you like to see history in movies, plus intrigue, politics, secret plotting, suspicion, disloyalty... and you love colorful spectacle, and you want to see Lana Turner's good-acting with Marisa Pavan - in her possibly the best role of her film career as Henri's menacing yet pitiable wife - well, don't miss this entertaining motion picture!

I think that the year of 1956 was the golden year for Hollywood because of golden films in this time as: somebody up there likes me - Julie and Daine.

This film was a good portrait by acting , writing and directing which presented a history of another countries as:France and Italy which make a theory of globalization beyond the cinema.

Lana Turner was a sweaty girl in the cinema all the time and in different stages , she made a good act in this film by mixing of love and sadness in the story of this film.She transformed from stage to stage in the main points of this character by great experience from her in her history.

Roger Moore was a Jan premiere in this film and he played this role as a first straining in his life and history that he made a grand harmony with Lana Turner which making a math in acting between them and this main point was advantage for film. He made a golden name after this film and he presented a spirit of Robert Taylor, Clark Gable , Tayron Power........ etc. If he completed his steps in Hollywood he will make a diamond name in the international cinema but he preferred returning to his home England to make many films in his country and to serve England with his experience he gained it from Hollywood.

The Lion company - I mean Metro Goldwyn Mayer - was excellent in terms of costume, period, historical movies: the Richard Thorpe's IVANHOE, KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE, QUENTIN DURWARD and other films such as KING'S THIEF, DIANE, SCARAMOUCHE...This somptuous historical drama has the benefits of a terrific production design, the trademark of the MGM costume movies. David Miller made this only film of this kind, unlike Richard Thorpe for hom it was a speciality, though Thorpe was a very prolific director, more than David Miller. Lana Turner is so gorgeous that she nearly makes you ignore the rest, besides her beauty. Besides, I am French and I have alwways been amazed by the fact that Hollywood was so dedicated to make films concerning history of France !!! England, yes, but France !!!! And here, Roger Moore is not at all a super but an anti hero.

.....in the heart of France ,in Touraine ,there is Chenonceaux which was nicknamed "le Château des Dames" .It's there,among other places, that the long duel between Diane de Poitiers and Catherine de Medicis took place.If you visit it,and I urge you to do it if you were interested in this movie which is essentially fictionalized history,the guide will show you the monogram which was sculpted on the walls :Henri II the King was pretty smart on his part:the letters are officially H (Henri) and C (Catherine) but it can also be read H and D (Diane) .The interlaced letters can be read differently depending on who's concerned.

Marisa Pavan is a good choice as Catherine,and Lana Turner is good-looking .A pre-James Bond Roger Moore does a decent job -anyway Henri II's face is not that much familiar even to FRench people ,unlike François Premier,his father who also appears in the film:it's strange they chose a Mexican actor to play him! Historically ,the film leaves much to be desired but there are good ideas :the cage for instance:the scene in the forest is almost eerie and the final tournament -whose ending might or might not have been predicted- gains in intensity.

If you take this for what it was, Hollywood's take on a real historical event, Diane was an enjoyable movie, as long as you haven't a clue as to what went on then.

They had so much wrong in this story it was rediculious. I mean they even omited Nostradamus, Catherine's protogee, and the one who made the predictions of the kings death and that each of her sons would rule.....for a time. What I would like to know is why they had some squirrely kid predict this? Instead of the truth.