November 19–26, 1998

movie shorts

Elizabeth

As Elizabeth, Cate Blanchett has a fierceness about her, an intensity that won't quit. She's intense even when she's supposed to be at ease, for instance, when she's a virgin being romanced by Joseph Fiennes. But from the first frames of Shekhar Kapur's fascinating, sometimes irreverent film, which show Protestants being publicly burned in 1554 England, it's clear that Elizabeth can never really be at ease. Following her transformation from girl to queen, the movie immerses her in danger from the start: it's a more viscerally sinister world than you see in most historical dramas, saturated with blood, conspiracy and full-blown recklessness. Once she takes the throne from her ailing Catholic sister Mary, Elizabeth must protect herself and Protestantism from a series of wolfish types and sinister tactics (including murder by poisoned dress and by slashed throat). With England in disarray (at war with France—whose queen is played by the intimidating Fanny Ardant—lacking funds and military forces, torn by internal feuding), Elizabeth makes an art of distrust and dirty fighting. Like the protagonist of Kapur's previous film, The Bandit Queen, she is a potent and passionate heroine, made stubborn and righteous by circumstances. Catholics are the chief meanies here, though most everyone is disloyal or corrupt at some point. But the production is alarmingly grand, from sets and costumes to camera work and performances, especially by Christopher Eccleston as the Duke of Norfolk and Geoffrey Rush as the queen's most evil and effective adviser.

—Cindy Fuchs