Let the Queens Reign!

What makes a good queen? Having the love of the people, is that enough? What about being astute and cunning in the game of diplomacy? History has seen many a great queen; powerful, intelligent, and inspiring women who defied conventions and survived their era as best they could. But what makes a good TV queen? In an age where props, sets, and costumes from a now dead century can be digitally recreated or where hundreds of craftsmen give birth to imaginary worlds from dusty book pages, it is important to have everything that makes a good film queen. A good film queen needs to be elegant, memorable, and wear awesome costumes. Below are my top favorite portrayals of Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth I on film:

Anne Boleyn

Genevieve Bujold in Anne of the Thousand Days (1969)

 "There is something deep and dangerous in you Anne. Those eyes of yours are like dark hooks for the soul" says papa Boleyn to his daughter as he asks her to become Henry VIII's mistress, in The Tudors, for the benefit of the Boleyn clan. The funny thing is that Anne Boleyn was known for her deep dark eyes which were not the epitome of beauty in the English court (blond blue eyed babes were preferred). Even funnier is that Natalie Dormer played Anne Boleyn for two seasons in The Tudors and she has really light blue eyes. My first impression of the show and the actress was disgust. How could they destroy and ignore the simple things of what made the Tudor era important? How much more wrong could I have been!

Natalie Dormer as Anne Boleyn in The Tudors

Natalie Dormer was amazing as Anne Boleyn, both as the lady in waiting trying to seduce the king and the ambitious queen fretfully loosing control of her husband and her life. What really makes the Tudor era so amazing is the passion of the people behind it and Natalie Dormer really captured the passion, the emotion, and the despair of doomed woman betrayed by the men around her. My first Anne Boleyn encounter though is also a very powerful one and that is attributed to the wonderful talents and fiery spirit of Genevieve Bujold as Anne Boleyn. Alongside Richard Burton, Bujold makes you wish you were right there next to her telling Henry VIII, "yeah, thats right!" as she promises in their final scene together that "Elizabeth will be a greater queen than any king of yours (any son he has with Jane Seymour who is replacing her), Elizabeth will rule a greater England than you could ever have built. Yes! my Elizabeth shall be queen, and my blood will have been well spent".

 

Elizabeth I

To love Anne Boleyn as a powerful female historical figure is almost synonymous with loving her daughter, Elizabeth I. Much of this admiration can be thanked to the beautiful, graceful, and powerfully voiced Glenda Jackson and Cate Blanchett. Can these women act, or can they act?! Cate Blanchett was my first Elizabeth portrayal to be experienced but upon seeing Mary Queen of Scots with Vanessa Redgrave, I had to see more Jackson portrayals of Good Queen Bess (nickname for Elizabeth). The woman was so good at being the English monarch that she was in a 6 episode series for BBC titled Elizabeth R (1971) and brought back to the English throne in the film Mary Queen of Scots (1971). Of course, my more modern tendencies with love for all things romance and hollywood really like Cate Blanchett's Elizabeth who swoons and doesnt learn her lessons about betraying men and power seeking courtiers until the very end of the first film, and who can ignore those fabrics, and those costumes! To have both actresses is the perfect blend of the woman the real Elizabeth was known to be, fiery and temperamental one minute while sweet and adoring the next.

All I can say is long live the queens!

Glenda Jackson in Elizabeth R

Cate Blanchett being crowned as Elizabeth (1998)