76. Queen Christina (1933)

Directed By Rouben Mamoulian


Synopsis

Famous bisexual transvestite Queen Christina of Sweden falls in love with a Spanish envoy and abdicates her throne to be with him only to find him dead after a duel! Feel good movie of the year.

Review

Garbo has the same X factor as Marlene Dietrich and it is no wonder they were such rivals in Hollywood. If anything Garbo is the better actress, at least in this film she is superb. There is a bit of a feeling on uneasiness in her earlier speeches as a Queen, but I am not sure if this is purposeful as the Queen eventually abdicates and so that uneasiness works with the character.

The film's plot it great, it bears little resemblance to the real history of Christina which is equally, if not more, fascinating but it is a very entertaining film nonetheless. Also, as the period piece that it is there are fantastic costumes ans scenery as would be expected.

The film is quite a light affair for the first half, working almost like a romantic comedy with all the gender bending and identity problems working as the comedic fuel. However it quickly goes from that to the story of starcrossed lovers and all the tragedy shows up. This actually makes it a very good film as both part work perfectly and meld seamlessly. Very much worth watching, buy it from Amazon UK or US.

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia




From Wikipedia:

One could imagine why Garbo would be intrigued by this project. She was given the opportunity to play a queen from her homeland of Sweden. And as such, Garbo was in total control of Queen Christina. She chose the director, cameraman, and cast. One of the screenwriters, Salka Viertel, was a personal friend. She had initially requested that Sir Laurence Olivier play the part of Christina's lover, since she was impressed with him in a previous film. But during rehearsals in August 1933, Garbo and Olivier did not have any chemistry. Instead, Garbo requested that Gilbert (who was once her fiancé) get the part.

In the feature film, Garbo's Christina is made to abdicate her throne for the love of a Spanish ambassador, Don Antonio, played by Gilbert. There is also no mention of the real Christina's conversion to Catholicism. The conclusion of Queen Christina contains one of the most famous shots in the history of feature film. In a long, silent tracking shot which moves into a close-up, Garbo is standing on the brow of a ship, gazing out at the horizon. It has been interpreted in many different ways, mostly due to Garbo's own ambiguity as an actress. According to the director, he told Garbo to think of absolutely nothing, to have her face be a mask, and never to blink in order to create this final shot.

Fairly or unfairly, this film was snubbed at Oscar time, and it did not do that well at the box office either despite good reviews from critics. Many consider Garbo's performance in Queen Christina to be among her best.