In 1983 , Chéreau directed the film '' The Wounded Man ( L'Homme Blessé '' ) , a more personal project for him . He and his co-writer , Hervé Guibert , worked for six years on the scenario , which tells of a love affair between an older man involved in prostitution and a teenage boy , a dark view in the context of HIV/AIDS . His 1994 film was '' La Reine Margot '' , based on the 1845 historical novel of the same name by Alexandre Dumas . It won the Jury Prize and Best Actress Award ( Virna Lisi ) at Cannes , as well as five César Awards . Set in the 16th-century , depicting the conflict between Catholics and Protestants in France , it shows battles and the St Bartholomew 's day massacre . A scene of the queen with the head of her lover is reminiscent of the opera '' Salome '' , uniting cult and obsession ( " Einheit von Kult und Obsession " ) , as Koch remarks . The film was Chéreau 's longest , most expensive production , and his greatest financial success . " I t was erotic and violent , and offers poured in from Hollywood , " but , he said , " I was always being offered films based in the Renaissance and involving a massacre . I even had an offer from the UK to do a film about Guy Fawkes . " He refused similar offers : " It 's useless to repeat something you already did . " In 1993 , in a rare acting role , he appeared as General Montcalm in Michael Mann 's '' The Last of the Mohicans ''
Cannes
1994 Cannes Film Festival
Patrice Chéreau