Friday Feeling: Elizabeth
Friday, June 27th, 2008I have a cunning plan…
Cate Blanchett delivers one of her most memorable roles as Elizabeth (9:00pm Tonight, More4), which documents the rise of one of the most prominent figures from British history, and the early years of her reign.
As a Protestant and a reformist, she has more enemies than she realises both at home and
abroad – the fervent political and religious backdrop is set right at the very beginning of the film, where three Lutheran ‘heretics’ are roughly shaven before being burned at the stake. Criticised for portraying Catholics in a bad light, the film is nonetheless enjoyable as a kind of English Renaissance-based thriller – much of the film is spent clandestine locations, with conspiratorial whisperings abound.
The costumes and settings are vibrant, lush and lavishly rendered, and the supporting cast is equally star-studded, featuring La Haine star Vin Cassel appears as Henri of Anjou, a would be suitor of Her Maj, future Pirate of the Carribean Geoffrey Rush as spymaster Francis Walsingham, post-Man United Eric Cantona as the French ambassador, a pre-Doctor Who Christopher Ecclestone as the conniving dastardly Catholic Duke of Norfolk and a pre-James Bond Daniel Craig as fanatical, head-stoving Jesuit assassin John Ballard.
Its hard to believe that Elizabeth is now ten years old, probably because of the fairly recently release of (not quite as good) follow-up Elizabeth: The Golden Age still relatively fresh in people’s minds.
