The Queen

Late to the party on this one.  In fact I’m so late that everyone else has moved on to other parties about one specific time in a famous person’s life like The King’s Speech, Lincoln and Behind the Candelabra ‘n’ shit.  Well it’s a pretty good party anyway.  I especially like the venison hors d'oeuvres.

Who the fuck knew something like not acknowledging Princess Diana’s death could be so goddamn interesting.  I actually thought this film was supposed to be about the whole life of Elizabeth II but it only showcases one week.  These couple of days sum up perfectly though not only her as a person but also the monarchial institution.

Here’s how shit went down.  Princess Diana dies in a car crash in Paris in 1997 (oddly enough this is one of those I-remember-where-I-was-at-the-time things for me, watching Saturday Night Live (it was funny back then), when they stopped the show for breaking news) and of course Elizabeth is kinda sad.  She never cared for Diana very much but she was still the mother of her grandchildren and future kings.  The rest of the English people are immensely upset over Diana’s death because she was the people’s Princess and all that.  Elizabeth just wants to move on from this and pretend like it never happened.

The newly elected Prime Minister, Tony Blair, tries to convince the Queen that she needs to address her people and show that she gives a shit.  Elizabeth refuses and the country turns on her.  At one point one in four are in favor of eliminating the monarchy and establishing a republic in its place.  All because the Queen won’t show Diana any respect.

And part of it really is about giving respect to get respect.  Elizabeth thinks she has been selected to lead her nation by God so in turn she also thinks that her people need her more than she needs them.  This upheaval shows that this isn’t the case.  The commoners don’t want a Queen if she’s not going to respect them and their wishes.

Another part of it is about appearances.  Elizabeth feels she needs to hide her feelings and essentially be a robot.  She wants to put her needs second to those of the country.  The whole notion of stiff upper lip and carrying on no matter what the difficulty is a British trademark.  The Queen is supposed to embody this ideal.  Ironically by acting this way she’s not putting the needs of her people before her own.  The country needed to grieve but Elizabeth didn’t want to join in.  She’s a surrogate mother to all her subjects and they need her to mourn with them.  By ignoring their feelings Elizabeth is holding England back from properly processing Diana’s death and moving on.

There’s also the deer allegory.  Throughout the picture there’s mention of a big deer roaming the woods in the Scottish countryside where Elizabeth has retreated to until the Diana thing blows over.  She sees the thing and it really is a beautiful looking animal with a full rack of antlers and a robust build.  This is supposed to represent the monarchy in all its glory.  Later the deer is shot and beheaded.  Elizabeth goes over the detached head and pets it realizing that the monarchy is not an indestructible establishment.  If the people don’t want it anymore then they can cut its head off.  In order to preserve this wonderful (and fantastical) concept Elizabeth knows that she has to go to London and do what her people want her to do, tell them she’s sorry Diana’s dead and show up at the public funeral.      

Alright, I’m gonna be real upfront about this, the reason why I bumped this to the top of my list was because when I recently upgraded the “Movies I’ve Talked About” section I noticed that I haven’t talked about a movie starting with the letter q.  It didn’t seem right to neglect that particular grapheme so I went to my Netdicks list.  Turns out The Queen was the only one on my radar that started with a q and the rest is history.

I’m really glad I saw this.  I didn’t think I would like it as much as I did and found this near brush with dissolution very fascinating.  The story doesn’t sound like it would make for an entertaining movie but goddamn is it engaging.

Also, I really appreciate that the filmmakers put the camera down for this picture.  I don’t think there’s one steady cam shot in the whole thing.  Thanks director Stephen Frears (High Fidelity) and cinematographer Affonso Beato (Ghost World), you made my day.