Your Majesty (2010)

Directed by: Peter de Baan | 85 minutes | drama | Actors: Carine Crutzen, Gijs Naber, Jeroen Willems, Eelco Smits, Hadewych Minis, Marcel Hensema

‘Majesty’ is a concept that almost coincides with ‘power and prestige’. And if we take this definition as a starting point, the Beatrix van Oranje-Nassau from the film ‘Your Majesty’ satisfies it quite well. Our Queen is portrayed by Peter de Baan (‘The Crown’; ‘The Prince and the Girl’) as a devoted guardian of the monarchy and personification of the State of the Netherlands – an authoritarian leader who is willing to take the career of the Prime Minister on a to sacrifice to a minor clause in the Speech from the Throne. The special thing about this third Orange film version of De Baan – again based on a screenplay by Ger Beukenkamp – is that it in no way leaves a tragic impression. Why not? Because Queen Beatrix becomes a person through her love for Claus – beautifully played by Jeroen Willems, who knows how to move you time and time again. The tone has already been set by a simultaneously restrained and powerful Carine Crutzen, who, as a grieving widow, pays a visit to the grave of her husband who died a year earlier on the early morning of Prinsjesdag 2003 – preferably unseen.

That perfectly matches the image of the queen that we know: Beatrix of the Netherlands is not a drama queen, but a queen in function. Then why keep a hand over a prime minister who does not know the procedures? Or accept her eldest son’s suitor if she is not completely free of blemishes? Completely understandable. Like almost everything in this film, which has a pleasant tone (humor from Prince Claus) and is carefully finished (images from Tanzania and driving tour). De Baan and Beukenkamp only miss the mark when it comes to the role of Jan-Peter Balkenende. In ‘Majesty’ JP shows himself to be a formidable challenger to the queen, even trying to win the trust of the heir apparent (the aptly chosen Gijs Naber). That makes for a nice confrontation of mother and son – as well as a nice climax, but is nothing less than incredible. However, the famous last words in the film are for Beatrix. She is not assigned hagiography with ‘Majesty’, but a humanization like her English colleague Elizabeth II with ‘The Queen’.