Royal Frears
The behind-the-scenes docudrama about English royalty, The Queen, is finally making it to German screens. EXBERLINER talked to director Stephen Frears.
By Daniel Khafif
The premiere of The Queen at the 2006 Venice Film Festival provoked contrasting reactions and high praise for the film's lead actress: Frears' introspective look into the royal family during the week following Lady Diana's sudden death was dubbed both 'a very sensitive close up' and a 'cold and distanced caricature' ... while Helen Mirren was unanimousl y sent to prep her Academy Award speech right away.
The Queen is altogether a daring, compelling, and surprisingly compassionate study of royalty under siege, filmed with docudrama magic and supported by a phenomenal cast.
We met with Frears (Dirty Pretty Things, My Beautiful Laundrette, Dangerous Liaisons), to talk about his countrymen's strange politics, their Queen, and other regal values.
Mr. Frears, did you make a 'caricature' or a 'close up' of the royal family?
(Smiles) Well, to be honest, it's a sensitive close up, with a distanced point of view of a cool House of Windsor-Mountbatten in a struggle between traditional protocol and a transition of values ...
Why and when did you decide to make this movie?
First of all, because of the marvellous screenplay written by Peter Morgan, who did really good research and wrote very fine dialogues, a mixture of sweet bitterness and reality, then of course, because it's been nearly 10 years now since Diana died, and furthermore because Great Britain went through a difficult decade. And one aspect is important: The main characters are somehow already part of Britain 's history while they are still in power and still ruling. Prime Minister Blair is still in power, although his time had come, and Queen Elizabeth II - man, she is there and she was always there, as far as I can remember. She is like furniture in your room that has never changed, she was on TV, in pictures, and even on stamps; she is part of my visual life, like the Union Jack or the Tower Bridge in London .
Actress Helen Mirren was rather nervous to play the role of the Queen. Were you afraid you would encounter any intervention from the government, the Blairs or the royal family?
No, not really. Helen Mirren said she was nervous because all the people in the movie, except for Lady Diana of course, are all still living and that's for sure a more sensitive role to play than a dead person like Henry V. But on the other hand, these people are so high in power and so saturated that they wouldn't climb down to fuzz around with an ordinary filmmaker. Why should they? What would they win? It's like we showed in the movie: They keep a sovereign distance ...
How was the royal family's reaction to the movie?
I can't say, I'm even not sure if they saw the movie. There wasn't any contact at all.
Your film in the end seems more critical towards Mr. Blair than it is towards the Queen ...
That's the thing. The Queen shows that values always remain the same although PM Tony Blair believes that they can change or that morals can change. But he gets eaten by power, while his wife still fights for her values. The Queen shows in a few words that the monarchy's strength always was to unite transition and tradition, where rock musicians like Mick Jagger become Sirs and deer hunters like the Duke of Edinburgh found the World Wildlife Fund. That's not a caricature, that's the truth. The whole royal system is contradictory but it works - I guess it works because of its contradictions. It's a unique system that survived throughout the centuries, it resists any fashion, any development, any innovation.
Why do you think this or any monarchy survives? God? Good advisers? Instinct?
Instinct, yes. Advisers, well, the royals are not stupid, they don't really need advisers because of any lack of intelligence, but because of time management. What really makes them survive are the rules of divided power: strength through weakness. See, the Queen doesn't really have power. The power is given to the government and the parliament, but, if one gains power he gets defeated, he has to fight, to run and to hide. In the end the one with the power doesn't possess power but gets possessed by power and eaten by power. The Queen is not the one to be in action: She stays a bit outside, but on top of the country. It's a weakness that, because of its passiveness, is very powerful. Prime Ministers come and go. The crown remains in its place. The crown and the throne are strong because they don't have to fight.
But with the death of Lady Diana, the Queen had to fight: She had to win back people's hearts.
Oh yes, this was really the first time since ages that the British monarchy suffered serious damage. People said they wanted to get rid of the monarchy. Well, I don't believe it would have happened, but, who knows, if the Queen would have stayed a few days more at her summer vacation at Balmoral Castle , she would have destroyed a lot of the people's faith in the monarchy. And, she is not just the Queen, she is the head of the Anglican Church, she is the Defender of the Faith, this is part of her official title and I do believe, yes, that she would have damaged the crown seriously if she wouldn't have returned to Buckingham Palace in those days. This was the first and only heavy crisis in her political life as a monarch that she had to pass through. This was exceptional, and that's what interested us in making this movie.
Although you don't always show her in a positive light, you seem to have empathy for Elizabeth …
I can't deny I certainly point a critical light on the Royals, but on the other hand, people may see that Elizabeth II is a human being, she has feelings, emotions, desires as any other human being has. That's what makes the whole story simple: The Queen shows a family affair, no more, no less. The Royals are a particular family, but still they are a family.
How would you sum up Elizabeth II, the human being, and her life?
Flashback: Elizabeth II didn't expect, and I guess didn't want, to become Queen in 1952. She was very young when her father, King George VI, died and she had to lead the crown. Born into a man's world and being a car mechanic and member of the auxiliary territory force during World War II, she learned to behave like a man and to never show any weakness. She had to rule the commonwealth while the British empire declined, to save face while colonies became properly independent - this was what her people seemed to expect - and when Diana died, all that collapsed: press and people blamed her for being cold and frumpy. Worse, a young gifted Labour PM called Tony Blair was telling her and her family - who had succeeded the crown for centuries - what people should expect from people in power. Even worse, a dead Lady Diana Spencer still wins people's hearts, even more than alive. This must have been a shock for her ... By contrast the timeless atmosphere in the Highlands seems to be the only place where she feels fine: Elizabeth II is always surrounded by her dogs. And nobody but the animals let her be free to be who she is: a woman!
Critics accused you of totally ignoring the rumours around the circumstances and investigation of Diana's death.
Yes, because this would have been a completely different movie. Perhaps Oliver Stone should start where I stopped, but that's not my intention.
Oliver Cromwell played Prince Phillip as a sarcastic, bad tempered, grumpy husband of Elizabeth II. Why did you make such a caricature of him?
I did? God, Prince Phillip always makes a caricature of himself: The whole country laughs at him. He is a running gag since I can remember, always saying the wrong things at the wrong time. It's impossible not to show him differently than what he is: a caricature!
Would you describe The Queen as a political movie?
Yes! British cinema became a very political and social cinema in the last decade, and that's good. In my opinion, young filmmakers should do even more political cinema, not just in Britain , also in Germany or elsewhere. We need more critical films to open up our eyes.
So you've switched to political films for good?
Oh, I have no idea, perhaps I'd rather make something completely different, comedy, crime, something more entertaining ... but right now I am unemployed!
Really?
Sure, maybe I'll stay for a while in Berlin . I heard there are many unemployed people here, so I should be welcom (laughs).
Maybe you'd better read job ads in Los Angeles or New York City : 'film director wanted ...' because there are more job offers there!
Yeah, but I worked there already. Berlin is really more modern than any other place I know. I like to be in Berlin and I can imagine working here. This is really a powerful place, which will get more important in the near future. And to be honest, the British want Germany to become stronger in any sense. There is a lack of power in the middle of Europe, which makes Britain weak as well.
The Queen by Stephen Frears starts January 11. See our review on page 42
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