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| | Elizabeth
| Details: 1998, UK, Drama/Period, cert 15, 120 mins, Dir: Shekhar Kapur | | | | With: Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, Joseph Fiennes, Kathy Burke | | | | Summary: A sort of Tudor Trainspotting, the young Queen's rise to power chronicled in blood, lust, intense dark colours and fast cuts. |
Shekhar Kapur's Elizabeth is the very model of a successful historical drama - imposingly beautiful, persuasively resonant, unfailingly entertaining. It's tempting to suggest that if Shakespeare had come back four centuries later to make a movie about his Queen, this is how it might have turned out. more... Forget heritage cinema. Forget using this for your A-level history exam as well because Elizabeth is a film that defiantly demands “history is bunk”. It bears no resemblance to any previous filmed re-enactment of 16th century English history. The only
historical film it reminded me of was La Reine Margot, Patrice Chereau’s blood-soaked epic of court intrigue. Cate Blanchett’s Bafta in the leading role was richly deserved: her monarch goes all the way from carefree dancing girl to something steely and almost Thatcherite: “I have become a virgin’’ sounds like a statement from Her Handbagness like “We are a grandmother”. more...
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"Remarkable performance by Cate Blanchett...." |
|  | The Observer
Philip French This is a stylised film of broad, dramatic strokes, and intent on avoiding the didactic and the over-explanatory... Cate Blanchett conveys with some conviction the political growth and emotional hardening of a woman becoming aware of her responsibilities and destiny. You can actually see her gaining confidence as she argues with her legislators for the Act of Uniformity, while the emergence of the tough leader becomes apparent in a montage sequence that pays homage to the climax of The Godfather. |
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