Heads on Pikes
Elizabeth
directed by Shekhar Kapur
starring Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, Christopher Eccleston, Joseph Fiennes, Richard
Attenborough, Fanny Ardant, Kathy Burke
Elizabeth has been described as the revenge of the colonials -
directed by an Indian, starring two Australians as the queen and Walsingham, it presents
us with an alternate view of who and what this fabled monarch was.
Praise has been heaped on Cate Blanchett for her performance, and it's well merited. She may well spark a fad for pasty redheads this season, and send those redheads scurrying off for lip carmine and dark red beaded dresses.
One cannot resist the visual seductions in the film: heavy with chiaroscuro, Elizabeth doesn't give us the rolling hills and greenery of a Merchant-Ivory production. Instead the camera lurks inside Gormenghast-like castles - dark, dim, and drafty - and sometimes peeks at the characters through gauzy draperies or thick, wavy panes of glass.
No, it was not a pretty time. Opening with scenes of "heretical" Protestants having their heads shaved in preparation for burning at the stake, the movie then moves on to show us Bloody Mary - performed with brutal brilliance by Kathy Burke, and looking uncannily like the Duchess from 'Alice' - as she slowly dies from some internal tumor before rows of silent courtiers. For one of the persistent facts of court life is constantly present: company. Once she becomes queen, Elizabeth cannot be alone - and if she is, it's because she's in danger.
This movie doesn't attempt to show us the whole panorama of Queen Elizabeth's history. Blanchett does not age and die before our eyes, and the fate of Mary, Queen of Scots and the Spanish Armada is outside its scope. What we do see is a transformation as a happy, uncomplicated young woman escapes death in the Tower to find she must cheat death and defeat over and over to keep her life and her throne. Foreign royalty seek her hand; nearby, courtiers vie to become trusted advisors. A turning point comes when Elizabeth dismisses the traditional, almost fatherly principal secretary Sir William Cecil (Richard Attenborough), to accept the advice and service of the more shadowy, dangerous, and yet ultimately reliable Sir Francis Walsingham, played with urbane understatement by Geoffrey Rush.
Only Walsingham seems to grasp the difficulties Elizabeth faces in wanting
to remain queen without sharing her power with a consort. A scene toward the end
of the movie presents a fascinating theory of why Elizabeth "became a virgin"
- which in this reading was not the physical truth, after her long liaison with Robert
Dudley, played with doe-eyed plausibility by Joseph Fiennes. Walsingham indicates
to Elizabeth that the people must have a female symbol of protection, and that the
Protestantism she has espoused forbids them the consolations of the Virgin Mary.
In response, Elizabeth becomes the Virgin herself, donning the whiteface makeup and
rigid hair and clothing familiar to us from portraits, and begins her transformation
into an icon.
There are some quibbles with the production. Elgar and Mozart make uncomfortable bedfellows with the period music used for most of the soundtrack. Here and there the tonality of the film is so dark that visibility becomes difficult. But in general, a very satisfying flick, with plenty of heads on pikes and just enough sex.
- Kate McDonnell