now, tastes more like real life

Yesterday my roommate and I went to see The Queen. I kind of got into it without entirely knowing what it was about - I knew it was supposed to be good, that's about it. It was really fascinating to watch a movie that was based on events that took place in my lifetime, which I have pretty good memory of. I know this isn't the only movie like that, but it's not just about normal people, it's about prominent public figures that are still live and kicking. For those of you who may not know what it's about, it's basically following Queen Elizabeth II and the royal family (namely, her mother, Prince Philip, and Prince Charles) and Tony Blair in the week following Princess Diana's death. I have decent memories of that time - I remember watching something on TV with my parents when the news interrupted to say that Diana had been in a car accident, and I remember seeing a lot of specials about the fairy-tale wedding, I remember Diana's brother's speeches, and I remember seeing photos of all the flowers collecting outside of the Buckingham Palace gates, but since I was only 13 at the time and since I didn't live in England, I obviously missed out on some of the subtleties. For example, I have no recollection of Tony Blair at all, partly because I don't think I paid much attention to international news at the time, and partly because I don't think I paid attention to Tony Blair until he became Bush's ally against Iraq (or, in other words, I didn't pay attention to him until nobody liked him). And I had no idea of the apparent conflict in England over the royal family's lack of response to Diana's death. But apparently it happened.

The movie's treatment of the entire situation was really fascinating. Helen Mirren's Queen Elizabeth II was this strange mix of (dare I say it) spoiled royal and self-sufficient, powerful woman. She has people opening doors for her and answering phones and catering to her whim, and yet she drives off with her dogs in a Land Rover in the middle of the Scottish countryside, all by herself, rumbling across a river and getting stuck in the mud. She is clearly passionate but so, so, reserved, the way you think of an English queen. The movie in a way was as much a study of the English people, the monarchy, the myth and tradition surrounding the monarchy, as it was of the Queen herself, but when you get to the end you really do understand that the Queen's character really sums it all up for you. Such a well-done movie - not a lot happens, but so much really transpires just below the surface, and it made me curious about Queen Elizabeth II and her history and personality. Not only was it beautiful and sad, but it was also occasionally hilarious, as it shone light on the monarchy the way you don't see. Because it is this antiquated concept - this royal family so removed from their constituents that they basically don't have constituents - such things are left to "the government" as though the royals aren't even part of it at all. But it continues to exist, Buckingham Palace in the middle of this modern city - and I thought the movie did an excellent job of highlighting the irony of that position.

The other funny angle of seeing this movie is that I'm currently stubbornly working my way through a book that touches on some of the same subjects, with perhaps a little more defined humorous take on the matter. It's called Freddy and Fredericka, and the gist of it is that a somewhat old-fashioned Prince of Wales happens to be married to a media-loving modern princess. She can do no wrong no matter what bungles she makes, but he is skewered by the press and the sanity and relevance of the royal family is called into question. When I started reading it, I didn't make the connection to the Charles and Diana story, but the beginning of The Queen sort of shocked me into realizing that, to the royal family, Diana was perhaps not as idolized as she was by the media and the rest of the world, and so they must have been an inspiration for the book I'm reading. (Hey, I never said I was totally informed.) There's even a Camilla Parker Bowles caricature in the character of Phoebe Boylinghotte. Anyway, this has lit a new fire under me to pursue the rest of the book, which is quite random and farcical and strange, but it's kind of like I'm reading an alternate history of the modern British monarchy, so I'm now officially interested.