The movie has a pretty rough production history and there are at least five official versions known:

The French Theatrical Version of this ambitioned movie disappointed many critics and the audience and was therefore no success. Especially the drastical violence scenes were too much for many viewers and the complex history is hard to understand by people who do not know the historical context of it.

The German Theatrical Version, which was released a few months later, was recut in some scenes and shortened in others not because of censoring but in order to avoid the criticism the French Version received. The characters now were easier to get, but the whole story was still pretty complex.

The US Theatrical Version was censored heavily. Besides some plot streamlining it seemed especially important that the romantic component of the movie was underlined. A scene, which was supposed to show Margot's and La Mole's love more clearly, was added. It can neither be found in the French nor in the German version. When the focus was redirected to the love story, the violence scenes were reduced in turn.

German TV station ARD created a Long Version for the TV broadcast, which was even a bit longer than the French Theatrical Version.

In the year 2007, a fifth version was released on DVD, the Director's Cut. One cannot say to what extent it differs from the original French version because the latter was never released on DVD. However, the violent scenes are featured completely. Some plot scenes are probably missing, because the running time is shorter than the one of the original version.The scene with Margot and La Mole is included as well.