New York FF Press Conference for :

THE QUEEN
Series: The 44th New York Film Festival [Sept 29 - Oct 15 2006]
Director: Stephen Frears , Country: United Kingdom, Release: 2006, Runtime: 103

Opening Night

There will always be an England. But the England that poured out its grief and condolence at the shocking loss of Princess Diana in the waning summer of 1997 was a nation that had become unfamiliar to the monarch who, at the time of her ex-daughter-in-law’s tragedy, had held the British throne for 45 years: Here was a people mourning its princess, awaiting royal public acknowledgment of what Elizabeth II preferred to treat as a private family affair.

In his slyly nuanced dramatization of the days between the announcement of Diana’s death and her funeral (during which Tony Blair established himself as the new PM with a mandate), Stephen Frears captures the unique tension between the monarchy and everyday British life with understated incisiveness. And in the title role, a glorious Helen Mirren conveys a living queen at once regal and empathetically real.