Rose rosse per Angelica (1968)

In the spring of 1789, Count Henri de Verlaine, nicknamed “the knight with the red rose,” loves women so much that he takes no interest at all in the events about to unfold or in politics. Young and carefree, he courts both the married women of the nobility and women from the common people. While in the company of the Marquise Lalume, he makes a distinctly inglorious appearance during an attack by bandits led by their chief, “the Marseillais,” who have come to steal grain from his barn to give to the poor. Surprised by soldiers, they flee with their booty. On the way back, Henri stops at the Golden Rooster inn, where he meets Maria, a serving girl. Charmed by her, he courts her but is rejected and ridiculed. When he returns to his château, he is astonished to find his friend Dr. Durand in his secret boudoir, tending to the Marseillais, who has been gravely wounded. Out of friendship for the doctor, Henri agrees to hide the bandit, but the man dies. Henri, who is the lover of Antoinette La Flèche, the wife of the police lieutenant, obtains a great deal of information about police operations through this relationship. He realizes that Maria is fascinated by the Marseillais and lets her believe that he is the Marseillais; she falls into his arms. So he helps Paul, the Marseillais’s right-hand man, conceal the leader’s death from the other bandits by taking his place and keeping Maria under that illusion. This is possible because they are of similar build and the Marseillais, who always wears a mask, is known only to Paul. The capture and hanging of his friend the doctor drives the young count to become truly involved with the gang and to act against his own class and against the violence of La Flèche and his men. To that end, the former coward takes fencing lessons, and his surprising requests leave his fencing master dumbfounded. When Antoinette tells him that her husband and the Count of Artois are to go and give the king a list of people involved in the prerevolutionary unrest, Henri manages to steal it, and the list La Flèche gives Louis XVI contains... only their own names. But in doing so, he indirectly implicates Antoinette, who was the only one who knew about the list. She denies it to d’Artois, but he manipulates her by making her understand that her lover is cheating on her. He knows she will follow him to his rival, and all he has to do is follow her. Maria is immediately arrested, tortured, and used as bait for an ambush laid for the Marseillais’s gang. To avoid a bloodbath, Henri turns himself in to La Flèche, who greets him with a burst of laughter. But the bandits attack the prison despite the Marseillais’s order, and La Flèche goes to give orders, leaving Henri and Maria in the unlocked cell...