« Now, THAT was Amazing! | Main | So, who watched Alias? »
Queen finds her heart a hard subject to rule | April 21, 2006
There have been so many portrayals of Queen Elizabeth in movies and television that it's hard for viewers to recognize what is real, which story is most true. I like to think that it doesn't matter.
These are depictions of a monarch who lived hundreds of years ago. It's not very likely that someone will know how to act like her or get the minutiae of her day-to-day life exactly right.
What matters is that a story and an actor can capture her essence -- something about the queen that made her so legendary and so much more important to our popular culture than any other English monarch.
HBO's new miniseries "Elizabeth I" (Part 1 premieres at 7 p.m. Saturday and Part 2 at 7 p.m. Monday, with frequent repeats on HBO and HBO2), with Helen Mirren portraying the Virgin Queen, gets it right but with a new twist. Read the rest...
2 Comments
I almost wish I could watch this because I ADORE Helen Mirren.
Posted by: Jay | April 23, 2006 08:12 AM
Belatedly (as usual): Watched part one. I love seeing Helen Mirren. And Jeremy Irons was just as good as you say. So, already it's a fine entertainment. However, I found one of the moments that's supposed to be a high point -- Elizabeth's famous speech to the troops while they're waiting for the Armada -- to be rather disappointing: It's a direct lift in tone and even in the way the shots are set up from Kenneth Branagh's Henry V. Most illuminating, I thought, was the depiction of Mary Stuart, though did they really have to show her getting her head cut off?
Posted by: db | April 27, 2006 01:24 PM
Post a comment: