Time to Watch The Queen!

It is late August, the Queen is still at Balmoral and August 31st will mark the 14th anniversary of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales in the Pont d'Alma crash. This is the perfect time to re-watch The Queen if it is an old favorite, or for the first time if this movie somehow slipped under your radar screen.  Expertly acted, it tells the story of the crisis the Monarchy faced in the days following Diana's death.  I really love this movie and it is refreshingly bereft of bias, always leaving the viewer wondering what the director actually thinks.  

When the movie was originally released there was much flurry about the real Queen, would she watch it, would she not?  Then there were the stories that she had had a private screening, etc. Apparently, Mirren had met the Queen before the filming, although not in relation to it, and after her Oscar win she was invited to Buckingham Palace for tea, but was forced to decline due to a scheduling conflict.  Then, at Royal Ascot in 2008, she was reported to have finally had tea with Her Majesty. It seems strange that the Queen would invite Mirren to tea but not watch the movie in which Mirren portrayed her, but several months ago an Australian paper reported that Tony Blair claimed that the Queen made it very clear to him that she had not watched the film and she expected him to follow her lead.  Even Michael Sheen (portrayed Tony Blair) claimed he had it from a reliable source that neither Blair nor the Queen would watch it.  Who knows. I think if someone won an Academy Award for portraying me I would watch the performance...

Whoever else has watched it or not, make sure you grab some tea and maybe some chocolate biscuit cake, and indulge yourself!