Feb 05, 2009 02:13 PM
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Marvelous, fascinating, awesome…whatever I say, will be less a praise for Elizabeth, the Golden Age by Sekhar Kapur, the sequel for Elizabeth pictured in 1999.. I must say being an Indian, I feel extremely proud that this man has been so thoughtful in curving out a second classic on an overwhelming queen.
It was not flawless though, especially when you talk about the historical truths but the romanticism blended in it is really touching. Truly speaking it was a real challenge to make a plain historical drama on Queen Elizabeth I, (1558-1603), hence a touch of mellifluence is added by the director to play magic and quite well did the exuberance get intermingled in the plot and touches the chord.
Elizabeth, the virgin queen, the last Tudor ruler, has always remained a mystical character and has eventually carved the imagination of many scholars and has influenced a number of historians. But of late, Shekhar kapur’s visualization of the queen deserves special mention as it is enigmatic, classical and simply vast.
The visual quality added to the film by the cinematographer is simply awesome especially the hues during the war scene where warships of Spain are getting destroyed by the fire ships of Britain and Ireland. The take on the jumping (escaping) horse out of the canon struck ships, the revolving sequence of the queen in the coronation robes erect on the victory map is simply a cinematographers dream shots. The angular look on the queen’s face at the last scene is definitely an editorial marvel, I must say.
This film won two Satellite Awards for Best Art Direction and Production Design for Guy Hendrix Dyas and David Allday and Best Costume Design for Alexandra Byrne. At the 80th Academy Awards Alexandra Byrne won an Academy Award for Best Costume Design.
It is perhaps one such film which has given Cate Blanchett, the enormous critical acclaim as an actress in world cinema. Though less critically acclaimed than its predecessor, but I found it really intelligently made with different dimension added into it. This movie, according to me, is better than the predecessor, as far as the Humanly nature of the queen is concerned.
This movie may not be a historian’s feast but is definitely an overwhelming exercise for the mass as it shows, what takes for a queen to surpass the royal grandeur and locate herself in the hearts of her kingdom. The godliness of a queen can create magic is what is depicted in the film. It jolly well said what made Elizabeth a queen envied by all, a queen who has set new meaning to the term monarchy and with whom a dynasty ends. In fact the sequel is enough to inject a thirst to know more about the queen , the one and only one queen who can do no wrong.
