Angelique Marquise Des Anges

The "Angelique" films -- a run of five bodice-ripping adventures starring Michele Mercier as the gorgeous country aristocrat who marries into wealth and falls into 17th century conspiracy and royal intrigue -- were enormously popular in France and beyond. The adventures kick off in "Angelique" (aka "Angelique, Marquise of the Angels," 1964), which sends her on a whirlwind ride into a marriage with a wealthy but disfigured count (Robert Hossein, with a gaping latex scar over his cheek), a worldly, learned man whose embrace of science lands him on trial for sorcery. Jean Rochefort is great fun as the brutally blunt lawyer who takes on the king and the church to defend the count. It's overripe melodrama with an overtone of camp, a comically lush score, and plenty of heaving décolletage from Mercier. Her story continues in "Angelique: Road to Versailles" (1965), "Angelique and the King" (1966), "Untamable Angelique" (1967) and "Angelique and the Sultan" (1968), where she is sold into slavery, tossed into a harem, and held captive by any number of lascivious suitors while she searches for her beloved husband. (Despite evidence to the contrary, Hossein returns in later films.) Bernard Borderie directs all five films, adapted from the series of best-selling romance novels by Anne and Serge Golon, which are collected in this three-disc box set.