There’s a scene in this lush but strangely hollow biopic of the titular monarch that finds its heroine (Saoirse Ronan) meeting her estranged cousin, Queen Elizabeth I (Margot Robbie), for the very first time in a remote cabin filled with what looks to be dozens and dozens of wet muslin sheets hanging from the rafters. …
Set in the early 1700s and based (however loosely) on actual events, the film revolves around England’s batty Queen Anne (Olivia Colman), and her devoted – if devious – companion, counsel and confidante Sarah Churchill (Rachel Weisz), who’s clever enough to realize that the increasingly eccentric and erratic queen is easily manipulated… largely because she’s …
I have no idea if the England’s early 18th-century Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) had lesbionic tendencies. I have no idea if her right-hand bestie Lady Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, was as scathingly hot as Rachel Weisz. And who knows if Sarah’s cousin Abigail was as much a mover and schemer as she is portrayed by …
There is so much history centered in and around the famous walls of the Tower of London, the imposing fortress that sits in the River Thames in the heart of London. Existing for almost a millennia, stories (and secrets) from the Tower could fill a proper Oxford English Dictionary (and I’m talking the multi-volume kind). …
The Queen covers that fateful week in 1997 when everyone (including the royal family) first heard the news of Princess Diana’s death in a car crash in a Paris tunnel, to the princess’ elaborate funeral a week later, a first for an ex-royal. Like many of us, the royal family and Tony Blair (Michael Sheen) …
It seemed like a curious coincidence that I started watching The Tudors shortly after I had finally rented Sofia Coppola’s candy-concocted Marie Antoinette, and a mere couple days after seeing a theatrical trailer for upcoming The Other Boleyn Girl starring easy-on-the-eyes Scarlett Johansson, Natalie Portman, and Eric Bana. I tell ya, history is getting sexy …
After watching hours and hours of royal corruption in the form of King Henry the VIII (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) remolding his kingdom and court to his own devices, I finally have to admit that I admire the Showtime series The Tudors more than, well, really enjoy it. Sure, the costumes are totally hot (I can’t get …
Let me say this up front: Just having watched season three of The Tudors, where Henry VIII continued to brutally butcher not only his countrymen, but his own advisors left and right, The Young Victoria came across to me as Springtime in the British Monarchy. Heck, the threat of being forced to assign a regent …
More than a little over-the-top and art-directed to within an inch of its life, this sequel to 1998’s Elizabeth is set in 1585 and tracks, among other things, the relationship between Elizabeth I (Cate Blanchett, reprising her Oscar-nominated role) and Sir Walter Raleigh (Clive Owen), and the myriad threats to Elizabeth’s life…not the least of …