To my regret, I haven’t seen the first Elizabeth movie starring the most wonderful Cate Blanchett. (It was done in the late nineties, and Gwyneth Paltrow got the Oscar in her role as Julia in Shakespeare in Love, not Cate Blanchett for her role as the 15th century Queen Elizabeth. Well, I will not comment that. )Instead, I will comment on the nonsensical tag line of this second Elizabeth movie: Woman warrior queen
. The tagline fits with the image that we seen on posters etc. – Cate Blanchett in armor and with open, somewhat umkempt hair and dramatic sky above her. Wrong image. This movie is about costumes, aesthetics, some love, some drama, some war, but mostly about scenes that are shot and presented like paintings. Some of these were pretty nice, but in general I and the other four people with whom I went to see the movie agreed that it was quite overdone. Not to an extent that would make this a bad or dreadful movie, but to an extent that lessened the grip on the audience. There was not enough story to really keep me involved – even if the cast and the acting were perfectly fine. Many shallow characters, too few surprises or interesting twists… A pity, of course. The trailer, however, is great, so you may watch this and then make your decision if this is a cinema, a home or a not-to-be-seen-at-all film for you.
IMDb entry | Trailer
Posts Tagged ‘medieval’
Elizabeth: The Golden Age – Woman warrior queen?
Saturday, November 17th, 2007Marie Antoinette – good style does not fill two hours.
Thursday, December 14th, 2006I really enjoyed the first thirty minutes of Marie Antoinette. Kirsten Dunst is, of course, enchanting and does not need Spiderman kissing her to show how charming she is. I also enjoyed the camera, the intimate perspective on the way the soon-to-be Queen of France experiences her world. And it is a strange world, full of exquisite beauty but also full of protocol and, in particular, far, far away from the world of the bourgeois or – unthinkable – the poor and the workers. In this world, Marie Antoinette has a few friends and many, many things around her: jewelry, tapestries, clothes, more clothes, shoes, shoes, and then some more shoes and an excess of delicacies. Looking at this assembly of beautiful and delicous things through the eyes of La Dauphine and mixing this experience with a well-chosen rock music soundtrack (instead of resorting to classical music appropriate
to the era) creates a particular movie that is definitely worthwile watching. If only the story would be more catching! The script did not offer much to stimulate my attention so that I had to resort to watching in aesthetic mode
– doing this for two hours was a bit too much, to my regret. Nonetheless, I am looking forward to Sofia Coppola’s next movie. There is some really great potential – I love her intimate and respectful view on people’s lives and the ways in which they see, touch, and feel their world. I also vote for more rock music in medieval settings: A Knight’s Tale is one of my favorite entertainment movies, though cheesy it has a lot of heart. This story did not unfold in a way that really touched me, very much to my regret.
IMDb entry | Trailer