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The Queen

Royal flush
THE QUEEN
Director: Stephen Frears
Cert. 12a

Some of us know only too well about the painful aftermath of divorce and how its effects are felt in the wider family. Its bitter poison is long-lasting and far-reaching. The point is illustrated well in The Queen.

Helen Mirren’s performance as Her Majesty in the week following the death of Princess Diana is extraordinary: it is noble and human, funny and poignant and so lifelike, to the last wave of the hand and tilt of the chin. The palace may deny the accuracy of the detail, but the audience gains an insight into the machinations of a family under siege and a monarchy in crisis.

The film concerns the reaction of the royal family to the news of Diana’s death and the role of the newly-elected Prime Minister, Tony Blair, in helping the Queen to come to terms with the public mood.

The mood of Britain

The audience is led on a journey from sympathy with the Queen through exasperation with her blindness and stubbornness and then again to sympathy and a measure of admiration at her self-control and commitment to service of the country over which she reigns. The initial failure of the Queen to respond to the mood of Britain in 1997 is understood in two ways.

First, it is seen in terms of a monarch brought up during World War II who has failed to grasp the fact that Britain has changed, from modernism to postmodernism, from a belief in the pre-eminence of duty to a belief in the pre-eminence of feelings.

Secondly, it is seen in the way that the tragedy of the marriage and subsequent divorce of Charles and Diana hindered the Queen’s ability to see the death of Diana in proper perspective.

In the end the Queen has to do what the Queen has to do.

Her commitment to serve the nation means that though she must make an effort to understand changing times and moods, she cannot ultimately be swayed merely by popular opinion. The monarchy, like it or loathe it, is an institution with its own calling.

A bit like the church. On the one hand the church has sometimes failed to understand changing attitudes, and on the other it has sometimes been inclined to neglect its calling. We must be careful to monitor the pulse of the nation in order to understand where people are. But at the same time we must be equally careful to be clear about, and faithful to, our calling.

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