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Conversations with death row inmate Michael Perry and those affected by his crime serve as an examination of why people - and the state - kill.

Bertrand Tavernier is in top form with this gripping, superbly mounted drama set against the savage Catholic/Protestant wars that ripped France apart in the 16th century. Based on a novella by the celebrated Madame de Lafayette, the action centers on the love of Marie de Mezieres for her dashing cousin Henri de Guise, thwarted when her father's political ambitions force her into marriage with the well-connected Philippe de Montpensier, who she has never met. When Philippe is called away to fight, she is left in the care of Count Chabannes, an aging nobleman with a disdain for warfare, and soon becomes exposed to the sexual and political intrigues of court.

Otto Preminger dismissed Bunny Lake Is Missing as his "small" and "unsuccessful" project. Yet in the years since Preminger's death, this insignificant mystery has become a cult favorite and a critics' doll. Cinema aficionados have rallied for its video release and scholars Jeanine Basinger and Andrew Sarris show it regularly in their film studies courses. Bunny Lake Is Missing really is an oddly compelling piece of work. The picture's veteran actors, Laurence Olivier and Noël Coward, embrace their own hamminess and play their eccentric characters with bravado.