Elizabeth (film)

Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth (film)

Shekhar Kapur is an Indian director known for films like Bandit Queen, The Four Feathers and the films on Elizabeth I.. His first film about Elizabeth I. deals with the early years of Queen Elizabeth’s reign and puts her self-discovery and the growing of her self-confidence at the centre of attention. Elizabeth has to overcome her her sister Mary, who put her in the Tower, she has to go through the passionate liason with Lord Robert Dudley, has to find out who is with and against her and she has to decide about the question of marriage and succession. This film belongs to the genre of heritage. Heritage films establish pictures of a romanticised Britain, they create a vision of England and operate as cultural ambassadors. The setting, the landscape, costumes and props play a crucial role for this genre and explain the success of films like Elizabeth. Queen Elizabeth is enacted by Cate Blanchett, Francis Walsingham by Geoffrey Rush and Lord Robert Dudley by Joseph Fiennes. The film was released in 1998 and was nominated for 7 Oscars.

Sources

http://www.imdb.com/
Elizabth. Universal Studios. 1998.DVD.
Higson, Andrew. "Heritage Cinema and Television." In: Moreley, David/Robins, Kevin. British Cultural Studies. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Moss, David. "A Queen for whose Time? Elizabeth I as Icon for the twentieth Century." The Journal of Popular Culture, Vol. 39, No. 5, 2006.