JIFFest: The Queen (2006)
This film would have been my choice of (shared) the best film i've seen in Jiffest 2006 along with Babel. It was so good that i had to cancel my schedule to see Breakfast on Pluto which was screened after this film lest I ruined my already good mood by disturbing the impression I had when I went out of the theater.
When Cate Blanchett assumes the role of Queen Elizabeth I on that film, Elizabeth, I was immediately fall in love with Cate Blanchett. Now, eight years later after said film, when Helen Mirren assumes the role of Queen Elizabeth II on The Queen, in my opinion, she would had the best performance as an actress in a leading role for the whole year.
In 1997, people of Britain, and probably the whole world mourned for the demise of Lady Di. Who could forget such tragedy, anyways? This film dealt with the event during one week of the Lady Di's demise on the queen's prespective. Having allegedly blamed that she doesn't cared about Lady Di by most of the news and her people, she had to chose between keeping the old tradition and modernized custom. For instance, when people started to ask about why there was no Union Jack's flag flew at half mast at the Buckingham Palace it was truly merely because a four houndred years old custom that the flag would only raised when the Queen was at the Palace and won't raised at all otherwise. Even if one day, the Queen dies, the Union Jack's flag won't flew at half mast at the Palace. In short, this film was deal with what the Queen had to face when Princess Diana die. She had to chose between keeping an old custom which of course would be angered the public, and overblown by press or step down to the street, greet the mourners, give the Princess proper respect (in view of the public) which considered by her as the modern way.
One of the crew members of The Queen said, that Helen Mirren was so convincing as the Queen that it wouldn't take long for them to actually stand erect with both hands behind their back whenever she passed by. And that wasn't meant as a joke. That surmised the greatness of Helen Mirren as the Queen. Her aura has already perpetuate the sense of majestic that it was so easy to imagine her as the Queen. I was even frowned when Prince Charles' introduced. I was momentarily forget that I watch a fiction not a documentary. The actual footage of the events surrounding the death of Princess of Wales also added the sense of documentary to this film.
Also very much interesting was the realtionship between the Queen and her new appointed Prime Minister, Tony Blair.
The Queen (2006)
Directed by: Stephen Frears
Running time: 97 mins.
My Rating: ****/**** (Excellent)
2 comments:
The one character not developed in the film was Diana herself. While she remains the icon of superficial popular culture, it was a very different Diana -- behind the facades of glamour and pseudo-compassion -- whom the Royal family knew personally.
Both Diana and her brother, Charles Spencer, suffered from Borderline Personality Disorder caused by their mother's abandoning them as young children. A google search reveals that Diana is considered a case study in BPD by mental health professionals.
For Charles Spencer, BPD meant insatiable sexual promiscuity (his wife was divorcing him at the time of Diana's death). For Diana, BPD meant intense insecurity and insatiable need for attention and affection which even the best husband could never fulfill.
From a BPD perspective, it's clear that the Royal family did not cause her "problems". Rather, she brought her multiple issues into the marriage, and the Royal family was hapless to deal with them.
Her illness, untreated, sowed the seeds of her fast and unstable lifestyle, and sadly, her tragic fate.
Thanks for the insight, i never knew such case of Diana and her BPD before.
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