Synopsis

The year is 1997, and Great Britain has a newly elected prime minister, the youthful, optimistic Tony Blair. He and his wife Cherie are about to meet the Queen. In Buckingham Palace, the Queen doesn’t appear to be fazed by Blair’s arrival. Then again, she doesn’t appear to be fazed by anything. After all how can she not ask Mr Blair to form her government. But when Diana, her son’s ex-wife and the mother of her grandchildren, is killed in a tragic car accident in Paris while she is holidaying at Balmoral Castle Scotland, her authority is tested as never before. While the Queen Mother and Prince Philip agree with her decision to remain at their holiday estate in Balmoral and not publicly acknowledge the tragedy, Tony Blair feels differently as do the English people. They are deeply mourning Diana's death by laying tributes at the gates of the Palace. Making matters worse is the out of control media, which has begun to castigate the queen for her silence. In order to retain her grip on the country that she has served for so many years, she must swallow her pride and let the world know she really does care. She must go to the people. Her people.

What The Critics Say

"An audacious cinematic triumph by director Stephen Frears animated by an Academy-award caliber performance by Helen Mirren that humanizes Queen Elizabeth in a time of crisis and change." Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat SPIRITUALITY AND PRACTICE "Mirren delivers a brilliant performance, one that jibes effortlessly with the public figure we've been watching for more than 50 years while plumbing depths we've never been privy to." Robert W Butler KANSAS CITY STAR "Long live "The Queen," which is sure to win Oscar nods." Linda Cook QUAD CITY TIMES "The acting is impeccable. Helen Mirren captures Elizabeth II with style, allowing us to discover the woman behind the seemingly haughty figurehead, and Michael Sheen's Blair is also a fully-rounded character. We see the man’s principles begin to waver as he falls under the spell of the monarch. The former glamour girl of British cinema, Sylvia Sims, is amazing as the Queen Mother. 4 1/2 STARS." David Stratton ABC AT THE MOVIES "All hail Helen Mirren. As Queen Elizabeth II, Mirren gives a commanding performance that cries out for an Oscar, if not a star-studded crown." Thomas Delapa BOULDER WEEKLY" "I think Peter Morgan is a major talent. I think this is so well done. Because he has imagined. He's done his research, but it's like you're entering behind closed doors of the palace. 4 1/2 STARS." Margaret Pomeranz ABC AT THE MOVIES

"Frears, who's tended toward edgier, more rebellious fare through his career, brings a remarkably even hand to The Queen. He lifts the story out of the realm of political debate and puts a human face on the monarchy." Jack Garner ROCHESTER DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE "Spellbinding. majestic and magnificent - with an Oscar-worthy performance by Helen Mirren." Susan Granger SUSANGRANGER.COM "Helen Mirren is flat out phenomenal as Queen Elizabeth II." Jeanne Kaplan KAPLAN VS KAPLAN "All hail, Dame Mirren!" Timothy Knight REEL.COM "A film that takes you behind the most famous closed doors in the world for a wickedly funny, fascinating and ultimately moving story of our times." Pete Hammond MAXIM "Frears' film is often a brilliant comedy of manners laced with the occasionally appalling undertones that we, the people, often embrace." Erik Childress eFILMCRITIC.COM

The Inside Story I think most moviegoers will remember how shocked we were to hear the news that Princess Diana had been killed in a car crash while in Paris with her boyfriend Dodi Al Fayed. The crash that took her life and that of her driver and boyfriend Dodi Al Fayed occured in the Pont d'Alma tunnel on the 31st of August 1997. It was a dark day. Then a glimmer of hope. A contradictory news report that she was alive in a Paris hospital gave us a glimmer of hope. But that hope was dashed shortly after when it was officially announced that she was indeed dead. The hospital surgeons had tried unsuccessfully for two hours to revive her. People the world over were struck with disbelief. How did it happen? Who was to blame? There was an instant outpouring of grief as the tragic news set in. Television showed the first of the floral tributes being placed at the Palace gates. What began as a trickle become a flood. People wept openly. The world held its breath and waited for HRH Queen Elizabeth II to console her subjects. It didn't happen. Eventually HRH left Balmoral and visited the huge wall of floral tributes. She walked over to those gathered acknowleging that their grief was indeed, hers too. In 2006, nearly a decade later, after all sorts of claims regarding: the Paparazzi; a cover-up; a secret pregnancy; a plot to kill Diana because she might marry a Muslim; the truth has finally come out. Her death was solely due to her driver. The Mercedes he was driving crashed at 196 km/h and Henri Paul had three times the French legal limit of alcohol in his blood. Surprisingly what has come out is news that the U.S Secret Service was bugging Diana's phone without the approval of its British counterpart on the night of her death. One important aspect no-one has contested was that Diana had failed to 'buckle up'. Prof. Andre Lienhart, who reviewed the emergency services's response for the French investigation is quoted as saying: "What is certain is that she was not wearing a seat belt and this made things worse. We would like to think that if she had been wearing a seat belt, we'd have been able to save her." Now the events of that day and its concequences are the subject of a brilliant film directed by Stephen Frears from a screenplay by Peter Morgan. Many will initially ask themselves "why a film about Diana. Haven't we heard and seen it all before?" The answer is no. "The Queen" takes us deep inside the royal family who were amizingly silent at a time when the world was groaning under the grief of losing one of the most remarkable women of the twentieth century. "Andy, Stephen, Pete and I wanted to team up on a film about another great British institution," says producer Christine Langan. "The royal family was an obvious choice and the death of Diana and how the royal family coped with that quickly emerged as the most promising subject. Diana had been a great cause of tension while she was alive; it was inevitable that her death would present the monarchy with perhaps the biggest challenge of the past 50 years." For producer Andy Harries, the deciding factor was "how the royal family and the Queen reacted to the news of Diana’s death. What fascinated me about the story of Diana and the Queen was an ageing monarch whose reign is rooted in Victoriana being challenged by a young princess, who, thanks to a catalogue of bad judgements, was absorbed into the royal family. Diana had an extraordinary aura about her. I remember the week she died. It was very strange, weird; there was a terrible stillness, no one quite knew how to react at first. Then the grief started. Was it a real emotion? Was it a fake emotion? Was it an emotion for her? Was it an emotion for all our other woes?" What makes "The Queen" so outstanding is not just its fine cast, but the screenplay by Peter Morgan. "It was essential that the film get as close to reality as possible," says Harries. "Peter is very gifted at negotiating that fine line between what we know happened and what we imagine happened." And what were Morgan's initial thoughts? "I was originally thinking about a multi-character, compendium piece set over 24 hours which looked at various people, both famous and not, who were all touched by the events of that day in August," says Morgan. "It soon became clear that the interesting aspect was how the Royals reacted in the week between her death and the funeral. It was a family in crisis, locked up in the closed world of Balmoral. The Queen decided that to protect the boys, all televisions and radios were to be removed. So they were living in a place of total denial. They were bunkered up in an institution propped up by sycophancy, and they weren't being told what was going on in London and the country at large. The people were on the streets clamouring for a reaction from the family and none was forthcoming. During that week, there was a very strong anti-monarchist feeling, which was stoked by the press which realised the spotlight of guilt was shining in its direction." "The Queen" starts with the introduction of Britian's newly elected Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair. He would play an critical role in 'saving' the Royal Family from itself. "The fascinating part of the story was what went on behind the scenes," says Langan. "This was a brand new government and there were huge expectations from the electorate and from political commentators but, four months into his premiership Blair hadn’t really delivered a striking gesture. Suddenly, with the death of the Princess of Wales, Blair found a role to play. The key element of the story was the relationship between the Prime Minister and the Queen and Blair knew that he could be a very important partner in that relationship." "On the one hand," notes Harries, "you have the Queen and the royal family battening down the hatches in a remote part of Scotland, on the other, you have the young, dynamic Tony Blair who understood the situation almost immediately. To a certain extent he saves the Royal Family’s future by getting them to face the demands of a contemporary media and a baying public." Word has it that it didn't take much to persuade acclaimed director Stephen Frears to come onboard. "It is very hard to find subjects that have some vitality, subjects that haven’t been flogged to death," says Frears. "By good fortune I’ve had original work for the last three or four years. This project was very appealing to me, partly because it meant I would be working with Peter Morgan again and partly for the subject matter. The film is about the conflict between an old world and new world. It’s about tradition, which has been both a strength and weakness in this country." Harries points out that Frears' keen directorial eye is the key to the success of the project. "When you are dealing with complex and somewhat controversial matters, you must have a director with gravitas, serious gravitas, and Stephen has that in spades. He is a proper director, not just experienced, he’s also incredibly smart. These are all rare qualities. He’s also a risk-taker; he’s restless and moves from one different type of film to another. He has a genuinely inquisitive mind; he’s a genuine enfant terrible." Another crucial elements in the success of the film is its forensic attention to detail. "I went to see everyone and anyone who would talk," recalls Morgan. "There are a lot of biographers of both the Royal Family and the Blairs and they all have their sources from equerries to secretaries to butlers to maids to civil servants. There’s a lot of material out there; it’s a question of sifting the real from the embellished."Advising them on the royal family were Robert Lacey and Ingrid Seward. A world-renowned author whose books are meticulously researched and eschew, Lacey's work includes the first serious biography of the Queen, "Majesty: Elizabeth II and the House of Windsor" (1977). Seward, editor in chief of Majesty magazine, wrote her best-sellers "Diana: An Intimate Portrait" (1997) and "The Queen & Di: The Untold Story" (2001). Morgan found a true collaborator in director Frears. "He's a writer's director," says Morgan. "He will pore over every single word and forces you to go back and make it clearer." Frears is most modest about his contribution to Morgan's rewriting parts of his screenplay. "Most of the rewriting on the film was to do with telling the story better," Frears recalls. "I’m always looking for ways to make it easier for the audience." How true those words are! What They Had To Say "It’s delicate material, dangerous material in a way, so you have to be confident that the people you are working with have the intelligence and ability to put a story like this on the screen without a cheap betrayal of the subject," says Helen Mirren.
"There’s more weight and reflection in this Blair. He’s certainly more mature," notes Michael Sheen. "The huge mandate he won four months before Diana’s death gave him a lot of confidence but he still had some way to go to be completely at ease with his new role as Prime Minister. Certainly by the end of the film he’s grown in stature and confidence."
"An American as Prince Philip? Beyond the pale! Stephen was a little hesitant at first, wondering whether I could pull it off," James Cromwell remembers.
"Given the iconic status of the Queen, I was terrified. I was more nervous about this role than almost any other role. The work with Penny Dyer was invaluable," Mirren recalls. "She is quite extraordinary in her understanding of voice. Of course you also have to get certain things right, the hair, the hands, the stance, the walk, the voice. I had photographs of the Queen in my trailer and watched tapes all the time."
"I’ve always had sympathy for Cherie Blair," says Helen McCrory, "and felt she got a very raw deal from the press who can’t resist printing unflattering images of her. This is a highly intelligent woman who is extremely successful professionally as a human rights lawyer. I welcomed the opportunity to show her as a loving mother and wife, who is more than the caricature we see in the media and who is intelligent, instinctive, natural and very funny."
"Stephen constantly prods you to go further, to explore a different area and he brings things out of you that you weren't aware of," says Sheen. "It’s an incredibly satisfying and rewarding experience but I wouldn’t describe it as a comfortable experience. His characters are always complex and to get that complexity he is constantly getting you to dig and go further and further. You are very aware that he is manipulating you but you are happy about it because you trust him."
"The story takes place over one week but we shot over two months," says D.O.P Affonso Beato. "I could control the interiors but I couldn’t control the exteriors. It was tough making sure all the exteriors had a consistent tone and I would have loved more very sunny days but when you’re working in Britain that’s always a problem. Stephen decided to film the scenes of the royal family with 35mm and the scenes with Blair with Super 16."
"From my research, it seems that Tony and Cherie lived like students," Alan MacDonald said. "They don’t have the concerns that permeate the royal household, they are a couple with young children and live pretty much how most people of that age with children live. It’s a fabulous contrast to the formality and the precision of Royal household lifestyle. It’s messy, chaotic, unstuffy and emotionally warmer."
"We’ve made sure everything was out in the open," says Harries. "We weren’t trying to do anything clandestinely. There was never a republican agenda to this script. What’s powerful about the idea is its audacity. You are making a film about a living monarch"
"They are both much slicker and more designer now,” she says. “They were both much messier and unglamorous. These are the costumes you can very easily get wrong, so I had to be careful. I wanted to create a world that rings true on an emotional and spiritual level but where I also had artistic freedom."
"When I was about to do a scene with Helen Mirren, he (Frears) would say things like "She’s so scary, isn’t she?" just to create the context that he feels is right for my character to walk into,"says Sheen. "He has a little twinkle in his eye but it works." The Verdict "All hail 'The Queen'. In her long reign on the big screen Helen Mirren has never given a better performance than this. May she reign supreme when it comes to the crowning glory of her craft, Oscar. Frears shows he has developed into one of 'the' directors of our time. This is a masterfully crafted film. Five minutes into "The Queen" and you'll believe that what you are seeing is so realistic you will want to rub your eyes in disbelief. These aren't in fact the 'real' people, but actors who carry their various parts to the highest degree of authenticity. Highest commendation and recommendation. This is a must! Don't miss it. 5 STARS." The Composer - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Film composer Alexandre Desplat was born on August 23rd, 1961 in Paris, of a French father and a Greek mother who met and married in California, USA. At 5 he commenced his music studiies with the piano then going on to the trumpet and the flute before turning to the writing. Desplat follows the musical analysis classes of Claude Ballif in the C.N.S.M of Paris as well as "Les Ateliers UPIC" of Iannis Xenakis and studies the orchestration in Los Angeles with Jack Hayes. At the same time as his classic programme, Alexandre Desplat investigates other universes and records with Brazilian Carlinhos BROWN and the Zairean Ray LEMA. Desplat has composed scores for nearly 100 films for such 'Who's Who's of the film industry as: Jacques Audiard, Alain Berberian, Mike Binder, Philippe de Broca, John Curran, Stephen Frears, Stephen Gaghan, Robert Gedeguian, Xavier Giannoli, Francis Girod, Jonathan Glazer, Marleen Gorris, Lasse Hallstrom, Philippe Harel, Patrice Leconte, Richard Loncraine, Florent-Emilio Siri, Francis Veber, Marion Vernoux, Peter Webber and more. You may not know the name behind the music but his soundtracks have featured in such entertaining films as: "The Valet" (2006), "Firewall" (2006), "Syriana" (2005), "Casanova" (2005), "Hostage" (2005), "The Upside of Anger" (2005), "Girl with a Pearl Earring" (2003), "Read My Lips" (2001) and "The Advocate" (1993) to name just a few. Desplat's awards include the Berlin Film Festival Silver Bear 2004; the 2006 César Award; 2006 French Press Gold Star Award and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award. Desplat has conducted the London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Czek Philharmonic, the Berlin Studio Orchestra, the Munich Symphony Orchestra and gives Master Classes at La Sorbonne (Paris) and at the Royal College of Music (London). Cast & Crew Bytes "THE QUEEN" stars .......
Helen Mirren ["Teaching Mrs Tingle", "Greenfingers", "Last Orders", "Gosford Park", "Calendar Girls" and "The Clearing"]; James Cromwell ["The Green Mile", "Space Cowboys", "The Sum of All Fears" and "The Longest Yard"]; Sylvia Syms ["The Tamarind Seed", "Shirley Valentine", "Dirty Weekend" and "What a Girl Wants"]; Alex Jennings ["The Four Feathers", "Five Children and It" and "Babel"]; Mark Bazeley ["Feast of July" and "Crust"]; Helen McCrory ["Interview with the Vampire", "The James Gang", "Charlotte Gray" and "Casanova"] and Michael Sheen ["Bright Young Things", "Laws Of Attraction", "Kingdom of Heaven", "Underworld Evolution" and "Blood Diamond"] as Tony Blair.
"THE QUEEN" was .......
directed by Stephen Frears ["My Beautiful Laundrette", "The Grifters", "Dirty Pretty Things" and "Mrs Henderson Presents"]; screenplay by Peter Morgan ["Dear Rosie", "The Very Thought of You" and "The Last King of Scotland"]; production design by Alan MacDonald ["Man To Man", "Rogue Trader", "The Jacket" and "Kinky Boots"]; director of photography Affonso Beato ["All About My Mother", "View From The Top" and "The Fighting Temptations"]; film editing by Lucia Zucchetti ["Kill the Day", "Small Deaths", "Long Time Dead", "Intermission" and "Mrs Henderson Presents"]; set decoration by Tina Jones ["Chasing Liberty", "Kinky Boots" and "The Last King of Scotland"]; costume design by Consolata Boyle ["Moll Flanders", "Angela's Ashes", "The Abduction Club" and "The Actors"]. Run Time 103 minutes Rated M [AUST] Copyright ©2006 - Miramax Films - All Rights Reserved Copyright Protected © 2006 - Impact Internet Services - All Rights Reserved