The Queen (2006)

Directed by: Stephen Frears | 104 minutes | biography, drama | Actors: Helen Mirren, James Cromwell, Michael Sheen, Helen McCrory, Roger Allam, Sylvia Syms, Alex Jennings, Tim McMullan, Douglas Reith, Robin Soans, Lola Peploe, Joyce Henderson, Pat Laffan, Amanda Hadingue, John McGlynn, Gray O’ Brien, Dolina MacLennan, Jake Taylor Shantos, Dash Barber, Mark Bazeley, Kananu Kirimi, Susan Hitch, Julian Firth, Harry Alexander Coath, Earl Cameron, Elliot Levey, Anthony de Baeck, Emmy Lou Harries, Laurence Burg, Wolfgan Pissors, Malou Beauvoir , Paul Barrett, Xavier Castano, Michel Gay

While the tragic death of Lady Diana Spencer was not an earth-shattering event in itself, its aftermath meant that the ‘People’s Princess’ will remain in the history books for quite some time to come. The outbreak of collective mourning that followed Diana’s death was of unprecedented magnitude: seas of flowers, condolence registers and large groups of mourners around Buckingham Palace. In addition, Diana’s death caused a crisis of confidence between the royal family and subjects. To the dismay of the British people, the flag at Buckingham Palace did not fly at half mast and the family refused to leave the estate in Balmoral, Scotland.

The English feature film ‘The Queen’ takes us back to those hectic days. From day to day we follow the royal family, a family that hardly knows how to handle the situation. We also find Tony Blair who, as newly appointed prime minister, mediates between the royal family and the people. Blair is one of the few who understands the dilemmas of the royal family and it is up to him to calm things down. With this film, veteran Stephen Frears shows once again why he is one of the better English directors. The way in which Frears sketches the events here, scenes played alternated with fragments from newsreels and current affairs sections, ensures a credible reconstruction. So believable, in fact, that the actions of the Windsors become a lot more understandable than the hysterical behavior of the grieving people.

If possible, the tone of the film is even more convincing. Because few people really know royalty, members of the royal family are often portrayed as caricatures or über-formal ice bunnies. Frears avoids this trap but also does not portray the family as people of flesh and blood. In ‘The Queen’ the Windsors are more like a family of royal flesh and blood, where a centuries-old educational tradition has left its mark, but has by no means wiped out all humanity.

A nice contrast to this are the scenes with the Blair family, a household where cozy chaos seems to be the norm. ‘The Queen’ is also implicitly concerned with the viewing public. When Tony Blair tells his wife that generalizations about the royal family are an insult to her own intelligence, the public should take it just as hard. The viewer will also notice that collective mourning for an idol never known raises a few difficult questions. At the same time, the film shows how difficult it is for the modern royal family.

In ‘The Queen’ an institution that owes its right to exist, appearance and appeal to age-old traditions is called to account by the people precisely if it behaves according to what those traditions prescribe. And that means a difficult split. It’s a shame that halfway through ‘The Queen’ a dramaturgical artifice is applied (something with a deer) that provides a nice analogy but clashes too much with the chronicle realism of before. Fortunately, that is the only minus, a minus that ensures that the handkerchiefs can be brought out.

For the rest ‘The Queen’ excels in craftsmanship; dialogue, photography and cast are all of a high quality, with Helen Mirren and James Cromwell particularly impressive as the royal couple. It results in a beautiful film that both monarchists and anti-monarchs have to be able to live with.