June 11 - Elizabeth

Today’s movie is a biography with a scene that happens on June 11. Watch it tonight and enjoy.

ELIZABETH

Queen ‘Bloody’ Mary Tudor of England is burning heretics. She has a false pregnancy. Mary and her husband Phillip II of Spain fear the Protestants are plotting to put Mary’s half-sister, Princess Elizabeth on the throne. Elizabeth is arrested, taken to the Tower of London and interrogated, but she will not confess to anything. Elizabeth is released and Mary soon dies, making Elizabeth the Queen. The Scots, under their regent Mary of Guise are threatening to put their Queen Mary Stuart on the English throne. An English attack on Scotland fails.  The religious Act of Uniformity passes, since Elizabeth’s advisor Walsingham locks up the pro-Roman bishops during the vote. The French Duc d’Anjou, brother of the French king and nephew of Mary of Giuse comes to visit touted as a potential husband to Elizabeth. He acts very rude when he meets her. There is an assassination attempt on Elizabeth and Anjou is revealed as a transvestite.  He leaves for Scotland. The Pope absolves English Catholics of any duty to obey Elizabeth. Walsingham goes to Scotland to meet Anjou and Mary of Guise.  Mary of Guise dies on June 11, 1560 possibly due to Walsingham’s actions. [1:34:50 to 1:35:19]  The Duke of Norfolk is goaded into betraying Elizabeth, is arrested and executed. Elizabeth rejects her lover Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, who had plotted against her and vows to live as a ‘Virgin Queen’.

A beautiful period piece. It does take liberty with the order of the facts, not their occurrence. It is extremely unlikely Elizabeth and Dudley ever consummated their relationship as this would have finished her, had it been discovered.  .

Queen of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stuart by John Guy (Houghton Mifflin Company, New York, 2004) at page 109 gives the date of Mary of Guise’s death.

Producer - Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner & Alison Owen

Director - Shekhar Kapur

Screenplay - Michael Hirst

Awards - The film won the Best Makeup Oscar. It was also nominated for the Best Actress (Blanchett), Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Original Score, and Best Picture.

Running Time - 2 hours 4 minutes

Released - November 6, 1998

Starring -         

Cate Blanchett as Elizabeth I of England

Geoffrey Rush as Francis Walsingham

Christopher Eccleston as Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk

Joseph Fiennes as Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester

Kathy Burke as Mary I of England

Jordi Mollà as Philip II of Spain

Emily Mortimer as Kat Ashley

Edward Hardwicke as Henry FitzAlan, 19th Earl of Arundel

Daniel Craig as John Ballard

James Frain as Alvaro de la Quadra

Kelly Macdonald as Lettice Knollys Dudley

Angus Deayton as Waad

Wayne Sleep as the dance tutor

Richard Attenborough as William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley

John Gielgud as The Pope

Fanny Ardant as Mary of Guise

Vincent Cassel as the Duc d'Anjou

Copyright by Ivan Walters in 2015.