The Queen (2006 film): Difference between revisions

The Queen
The Queen
	The Queen Movie Poster
Directed by	Stephen Frears
Written by	Peter Morgan
Produced by	Francois Ivernel; Cameron McCracken; Scott Rudin
Starring	Helen Mirren; Michael Sheen; James Cromwell; Helen McCrory; Alex Jennings; and; Sylvia Syms
Cinematography	Affonso Beato
Edited by	Lucia Zucchetti
Music by	Alexandre Desplat
Distributed by	Pathé Pictures; Miramax Films; Icon Productions
Release dates	2 September, 2006 (premiere at VFF); 15 September, 2006; 30 September, 2006 (limited); 13 October, 2006 (limited); 20 October, 2006 (wide); 26 December, 2006 (limited); 1 March, 2007
Running time	97 min.
Language	English

Browse history interactively

← Previous edit Next edit →

Content deleted Content added

VisualWikitext

Inline

Revision as of 13:05, 4 March 2007

The Queen is an Academy Award-winning 2006 film directed by Stephen Frears. It takes an intimate, behind-the-scenes look at the interaction between Queen Elizabeth II (played by Helen Mirren) and British Prime Minister Tony Blair (played by Michael Sheen) following the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. It focuses on their struggle to reach a compromise between treating her death as a private tragedy for the Royal Family and appeasing the public's demand for an overt display of mourning.

Plot

Template:Spoiler

The film begins on the eve of the 1997 UK British general election, which saw Tony Blair as the United Kingdom's first Labour Party Prime Minister in 18 years. While posing for an official portrait, the Queen makes small talk with the artist and expresses her regret about not being allowed to vote. Queen Elizabeth is slightly wary of the new prime minister and his pledge to 'modernize' the country, but Blair promises to respect the independence of the Royal Family. Blair visits Buckingham Palace for the first of his weekly audiences with the Queen, at which she asks him to form a government.

A few months later, Diana, Princess of Wales is killed in a car accident while visiting Paris with her boyfriend, Dodi Al Fayed. Britons erupt in an intense state of grief, as millions come to Buckingham Palace to place floral tributes along the fence. Blair makes a public statement, written by his director of communications, Alastair Campbell, in which he describes Diana as 'the People's Princess'. The phrase catches on immediately.

Meanwhile, the Royal Family is still on holiday at Balmoral Castle, the Queen's Scottish estate in Aberdeenshire, a contrast with the relatively modest middle-class household the Blairs keep in their constituency. Diana's death sparks mixed feelings among senior members of the family. Diana had not been much beloved by them while she was alive. The Queen observes that, since Diana divorced her son, the Prince of Wales, a year before, Diana is no longer a member of the Royal Family. Consequently, as she insists to Blair, the funeral arrangements are a "private matter" to be left to the late princess's own family. After initially hesitating, though, she accedes to Prince Charles' request for his use of an aircraft of the Queen's Flight to fly to Paris and bring Diana's body back to Britain. Charles ensures that Diana's coffin is draped with a royal standard instead of being a "plain wooden box."

File:HMirrenQueen.jpg

Helen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth II

In London the bouquets begin to pile up along the Palace fence, forcing the changing of the guard to use another gate. As the days pass, the British tabloids become increasingly impatient with the absence of an expression of public condolence from the Monarch. Prince Charles, during a brief conversation with Blair when Diana's body is returned to London and later through back-channel contacts, leaves no doubt that he shares Blair's views about the need for a more public expression of grief. Blair's popularity rises sharply, to the delight of the Prime Minister's more republican advisers, including his wife, Cherie, who see the Monarchy as hopelessly antiquated.

Blair, however, does not share these sentiments. He wants to save the Royal Family "from themselves" before it is too late. Despite not concurring with the Royal Family's course of action, Blair respects the Royal Family and chides Cherie for her lack of respect. (Later on, Blair reveals himself as a traditionalist who supports the Monarchy and angrily denounces the anti-royal disdain of his Labour counterparts.) After days of building pressure, Blair calls the Queen at Balmoral and urgently recommends a course of action he believes is needed to retain (or regain) the public's confidence in the Monarchy. These measures include attending a public funeral for Diana at Westminster Abbey, flying a Union Flag at half mast over Buckingham Palace (a step without precedent in four centuries of royal protocol), and speaking to the nation about Diana's legacy in a live, televised address from the Palace.

Blair's recommendations outrage the Queen's husband, Prince Philip and mother, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. They view such steps as an undignified surrender to an emotional frenzy, whipped up by the newspapers, that will blow over when the public comes to its senses. The Queen shares their sentiments but begins to have doubts as she follows the coverage. Speaking with her mother, the Queen muses that there has been some shift in public values, that perhaps one should step aside when one no longer understands one's people. Her mother reminds the Queen of the vow she made as a princess (i.e., to devote "my whole life, whether it be long or short...to your service").

The Queen returns to London, inspects the floral tributes, and goes on live television to speak about Diana's life and work. This gesture seems to defuse the public's anger. Two months later, Blair comes to the Palace for a weekly meeting. The Queen has regained her popularity, but believes she will never quite fully recover from "that week." She cautions Blair that he too will find, one day, that public opinion can turn rapidly. With some banter about who should be advising whom, they go for a walk in the Palace garden, talking about Blair's current policy plans and apparently enjoying each other's company. Template:Spoiler-end

Production

The screenplay was written by Peter Morgan and produced by Pathé Pictures. Stephen Frears was an appropriate choice for director, as he had already directed Michael Sheen in the role of Tony Blair for the 2003 television drama The Deal.

The film was shot on location in England in London and Halton House in Buckinghamshire, and on the Scottish Highlands.

Mirren says transforming herself into the Queen came almost naturally after the wig and glasses, since she shares a default facial expression — a slightly downturned mouth — with the monarch.^[1] She regularly reviewed film and video footage of Elizabeth and kept photographs in her trailer during production.^[2] She also undertook extensive voice coaching, faithfully reproducing the Queen's delivery of her televised speech to the world. Morgan has said that her performance was so convincing that, by the end of production, crew members who had been accustomed to slouching or relaxing when they addressed her were standing straight up and respectfully folding their hands behind their backs.^[1]

Mirren arranged to spend time off-camera with the other actors playing members of the Royal Family — James Cromwell, Alex Jennings and Sylvia Syms, so they would be as comfortable with each other as a real family.^[2]

Historical accuracy

Morgan reconstructed the events of that week through extensive interviews with many unnamed sources close to the Prime Minister and the Royal Family. Many of these sources were able to corroborate the accounts of others, giving Morgan enough information to imagine the intervening scenes.^[2].

Some aspects of the characters are known to be true to their real-life counterparts. Cherie Blair's hostility to the monarchy has been widely reported, including her refusal to curtsey.^[3] According to Morgan, "cabbage" is an actual term of endearment Philip uses for his wife.^[1]. The film was not necessarily intended to be an historically accurate representation of the Queen's role. Screenwriter Morgan has stated that "As far as I am aware, I wrote about a cold, emotionally detached, haughty, difficult, prickly, private, uncommunicative, out-of-touch bigot. But people adore her, because they think it was written with compassion and integrity rather than being a hatchet job."^{[citation needed]}

The electric guitar seen behind Blair in his personal office is a reference to his past membership in the band Ugly Rumours while a law student at St. John's College, Oxford. The Newcastle United football jersey he wears to a family breakfast at 10 Downing Street is a reference to his support of that team.

In the film, Prince Charles refers to his son, William, as "the future King of England", but no such position has existed since the Act of Union in 1707. In reality, William is the future king of sixteen separate states; England is only a constituent country within the United Kingdom.

Box office

As of March 2nd, the film has earned $52.8 million in the U.S. and a worldwide gross of over $100 million. [1]. With a budget of $15 million, the film is a box office hit. Remarkably the film was a hit before it received a wider release following the Golden Globe Awards.

Censorship

In early 2007, after a passenger complaint, California-based Jaguar Distribution revealed that an edition of the movie distributed to airlines had overzealously bleeped out seven occurrences of the word "God", including in the phrase, "God bless you, ma'am". It was determined that this was the result of an attempt to remove profanity and blasphemy from the airline edition of the movie.^[4]

DVD

The DVD will be released in the UK on the 12th March and in the USA on the 28th April. Special features will include a making-of featurette, and a feature length commentary by Stephen Frears, writer Peter Morgan and author of "Monarch: the Life and Reign of Elizabeth II," Robert Lacey.

Cast

Helen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth II. This film is the third time that Mirren has portrayed a British queen: the first was Queen Charlotte in The Madness of King George (1994), and the second was Queen Elizabeth I in the 2005 miniseries Elizabeth I.
Michael Sheen as Prime Minister Tony Blair. Sheen had previously played Blair in the 2003 TV film The Deal.
James Cromwell as Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Alex Jennings as Charles, Prince of Wales
Helen McCrory as Cherie Blair
Sylvia Syms as HM Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother
Roger Allam as Sir Robin Janvrin
Tim McMullan as Stephen Lamport
Mark Bazeley as Alastair Campbell
Douglas Reith as Lord Airlie

Trivia

The full name of actor James Cromwell (who portrays Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh) is James Oliver Cromwell, making him the namnesake of Oliver Cromwell who in 1649 abolished the English monarchy.

Awards

79th Academy Awards (2006)

Won: Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role — Helen Mirren
Nominated: Best Motion Picture of the Year— Andy Harries, Christine Langan, Tracey Seaward
Nominated: Achievement in Directing — Stephen Frears
Nominated: Best Original Screenplay — Peter Morgan
Nominated: Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score) — Alexandre Desplat
Nominated: Achievement in Costume Design — Consolata Boyle

2006 British Academy Film (BAFTA) Awards

Won: Best Film
Won: Actress in a Leading Role — Helen Mirren
Nominated: Outstanding British Film — Andy Harries, Christine Langan, Tracey Seaward, Stephen Frears, Peter Morgan
Nominated: The David Lean Award for Achievement in Direction — Stephen Frears
Nominated: Actor in a Supporting Role — Michael Sheen
Nominated: Original Screenplay — Peter Morgan
Nominated: Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music — Alexandre Desplat
Nominated: Editing — Lucia Zucchetti
Nominated: Costume Design — Consolata Boyle
Nominated: Makeup and Hair — Daniel Philipps