The Queen
Directed by Stephen Frears
- drama
- history
The story
The Queen is an intimate behind the scenes glimpse at the interaction between HM Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Tony Blair during their struggle, following the death of Diana, to reach a compromise between what was a private tragedy for the Royal family and the public's demand for an overt display of mourning.
What it’s like
Measured, candlelit-palace restraint: long, still interiors of Buckingham Palace and Balmoral in dim, muted greens, browns and grey daylight, with the occasional hard flash of a paparazzi bulb or a bright press-room fluorescent cutting through. Stephen Frears keeps the camera close and unfussy, often handheld in corridors and at the edge of rooms, so the court feels like a place people are quietly trapped in. The score is sparse and restrained, and much of the film sits in hushed silence broken by clipped dialogue, ticking clocks and the drone of television news. The mood is wry, elegiac and faintly sad, a slow study of grief, duty and public image rather than a tearjerker, with the drama building through small glances and held pauses. Its people change gradually, a stubborn monarch and an anxious new prime minister learning, reluctantly, to read the national mood. Intensity is low: no violence, no gore, no sexual content, and only the emotional weight of a death that is seen mostly through news footage and reactions. Suited to a quiet evening, for viewers who enjoy dry British wit, political drama and restrained character work.
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