The Queen
![The Queen](https://prod-images.tcm.com/v5cache/TCM/Images/Dynamic/i351/Queen2006_649188_1024x767_12082014100739.jpg)
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Stephen Frears
Joyce Henderson
John Mcglynn
Helen Mccrory
Sylvia Syms
Douglas Reith
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
A revealing, witty portrait of the British royal family in crisis immediately following the death of Princess Diana. The setting for this fictional account of real events is no less than the private chambers of the Royal Family and the British government in the wake of the sudden death of Princess Diana in August of 1997. In the immediate aftermath of the Princess's passing, the tightly contained, tradition-bound world of the Queen of England clashes with the slick modernity of the country's brand new, image-conscious Prime Minister, Tony Blair. The result is an intimate, yet thematically epic, battle between private and public, responsibility and emotion, custom and action - as a grieving nation waits to see what its leaders will do.
Director
Stephen Frears
Cast
Joyce Henderson
John Mcglynn
Helen Mccrory
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/SylviaSyms.187943.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
Sylvia Syms
Douglas Reith
David Arch
Michel Gay
Jake Taylor Shantos
Earl Cameron
Mark Bazeley
Emmy Lou Harries
Roger Allam
Dolina Maclennan
Wolfgang Pissors
Elliot Levey
Paul Barrett
Malou Beauvoir
Tim Mcmullan
Kananu Kirimi
Laurence Burg
Alex Jennings
Anthony Debaeck
Harry Alexander Coath
James Cromwell
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/HelenMirren.132793.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
Helen Mirren
Michael Sheen
Alison Stephens
Julian Firth
Xavier Castano
Pat Laffan
Robin Soans
Lola Peploe
Amanda Hadingue
Gray O'brien
Susan Hitch
Dash Barber
Crew
Pani Ahmadi-moore
Tim Alban
Louie Alexander
Marcus Alexander
Annette Allen
Pete Anderson
Nigel Ankers
Nigel Ankers
Farid Arahb
Barry Arnold
Marion Audier
Francis Auguy
Simon Baker
Peter Bathurst
David Bayliss
Alfonso Beato
Alfonso Beato
Alfonso Beato
Jean-pascal Beintus
Perry Bell
Paul Bennett
Anna Bertmark
Bruce Bigg
Gwyneth Binyon
David Bishop
Francois Blanquet
Kathryn Blight
Frederic Blochet
Christian Bonnichon
William Booker
Christel Bordon
Veronique Bosle
Jean-luc Boucherot
Dennis Bovington
Consolata Boyle
Chris Bradshaw
Xavier Brasleret
Matthew Broderick
Katie Buckley
Helen Bunker
Jeremy Burnage
Jason Burnett
Andy Burrows
Luke Cairns
Sue Calverley
Brandon Campbell
Gilles Cappelletto
Tommy Carlin
Paul Carr
Susan Casey
Carole Cattrini
Graham Chalk
Sebastien Chaplais
Leigh Chesters
David Chisholm
Sophia Chowdhury
Mally Chung
Wailoon Chung
Benoit Cisilkiewick
Wayne Clarke
Constant Clavier
Charlie Cobb
Andy Cole
Matthew Cole
Rebecca Cole
Marty Conisbee
Jonah Coombes
Guy Cope
Gerry Cott
William Coubrough
Perrine Coulogner
Chris Cozens
Stacey Crago
Tim Critchell
Paul Cronin
Joss Crowley
Joelle Cugny
Ian Cunningham
Adam Curtis
Adam Dale
Gerald Dale
Graham Alec Dale
Jeff Darby
Richard Davey
Paul Davies
Lara Davis
Leo Davis
Garry Dawson
Alexandre Desplat
Alexandre Desplat
Alexandre Desplat
Russell Diamond
Roddy Dolan
Gary Donoghue
Paul Doogan
James Downard
Jonathan Downing
Kerry Downing
Linda Drew
Remi Dubus
Andrew Dudman
Jon Duncan
Lawrence Duncan
Nathan Duncan
Cathy Dutheil
Tim Earl
Giles Edleston
Zoe Edwards
Lucy Egerton
Nigel Egerton
Richard Eksteen
Warren Ewen
Penny Eyles
Samia Fadli
James Fleming
Michael Fleming
Xavier Forcioli
Elaine Ford
Olivier Foucher
Ian Fowles
Sebastien Franchault
Dan Garlick
Jack Garwood
Charlie Gaynor
Joanne Gibson
Kerry Gill Pryde
Jack Gillies
Peter Gleaves
Martin Goddard
Synnove Godeseth
Joe Godfrey
Josephine Gracia
Geoffrey Brian Grant
Richard Graysmark
Eugene Grobler
Martin Guena
Guy Guermouh
Charlie Habanananda
Les Hall
Danny Hambrook
Alistair Hamer
James Hamilton
Mark Hanlon
Claire Hardaker
Shane Harford
Andy Harries
Peter Hasler
Adam Hawkes
Jo Hawthorne
Alain Herpe
Nicky Higginbotham
Lissy Holm
Alistair Hopkins
Mark Hopkins
Brian Horsburgh
Toby Hosking
Phillippe Houdart
Charles Howell
Nathan Hughes
Paul Humbles
July Hygreck
Francois Ivernel
Gary Ixer
Terry Jarvis
Vinod Jassal
Jenna Jones
Matthew Jones
Robert Jones
Tina Jones
Jean-francois Juvanon
Pat Karam
Dean Kennedy
Gilles Kenny
Roy Kirkman
Izet Kutlovac
Gilles Laboulandine
Henry Landgrebe
Christine Langan
Christian Langlois
Philippe Lapicque
Adam Laschinger
Carmine Lauri
Aaron Lear
Paul Legall
Tony Lewis
Antoine Lienhard
Peter Lindsay
Abbie Lister
Andrew Long
Catrin Long
Kevin Lowery
Chas Lyons
Alan Macdonald
Hilary Macdonald
Vince Madden
Steve Malin
Adam Marchand
Keith Marriner
Stephen Marshall
Josie Martin
Film Details
Technical Specs
Award Wins
Best Actress
Best Actress
Award Nominations
Best Costume Design
Best Director
Best Original Screenplay
Best Picture
Best Score
Articles
The Queen
The Queen is a fictional imagining of what might have happened behind the scenes in the week following Princess Diana's death in a Paris car crash, an accident that occurred as she and her boyfriend, Dodi Al Fayed, were speeding away from paparazzi in hot pursuit on motorbikes. What, exactly, was going through the real Queen Elizabeth's head in refusing, at first, to make any sort of statement about the death of her former-daughter-in-law - a woman whom openly disliked -- even as the people of her country were plunged into mourning? In The Queen, screenwriter Peter Morgan blends facts with speculation: The recently elected Prime Minister Tony Blair - played, with perfect levels of chipmunkish brightness - has a better idea of what's going on among his constituents. He tries to nudge Elizabeth - without risking any disrespect - to appear before her subjects, to show some respect for their grief even if her own feelings must remain under wraps. Mirren's Elizabeth holds firm: She cares about Diana only inasmuch as the erstwhile princess was the mother of her grandchildren. Even her son, Charles (played, superbly, by Alex Jennings), griefstricken over his ex-wife's death, suggests rather pointedly to his mother that the world has changed but she has not. He even makes a not-so-veiled dig at her shortcomings as a mother.
The Queen is so beautifully made, and features such uniformly terrific performances, that you can't help wonder: How true to life could it possibly be? Frears didn't take this enterprise lightly. "If you make films about living people, you always feel a responsibility and you bend over backwards," he told the New York Times in an interview at the time of the film's release. "With the queen you're not only dealing with your responsibility toward her, but everyone in the audience has very strong feelings and knows a lot about her. So you don't do it casually. You have to be fair." In that same article screenwriter Morgan noted that his own mother, approximately the same age as the queen, shared many of her traits, particularly her thriftiness and her refusal to complain. "To do a hatchet job would have felt like matricide," he said.
In researching the screenplay, Morgan culled information from media reports and biographies, and conducted extensive interviews with royal and political insiders. Though he wouldn't reveal the identities of the people he interviewed, the Times noted that "he talked to anyone and everyone, from high-ranking courtiers to lowly stable hands." He also indicated that his sources were only too happy to talk and gossip. "I found the whole time that I had to dampen down the inflammatory nature of what I was being told," he said. "You have no idea how much hosing down and cooling of information we had to do. We were shedding and throwing out sensational information the whole time."
The movie Frears made from Morgan's screenplay is sly, perceptive, and ultimately moving, detailing the ways in which Elizabeth, supposedly a master of control, continues to mishandle events in the aftermath of Diana's death, much to Blair's frustration. She and the other members of the royal family - including Prince Philip (a wonderfully tweeded-up and daft James Cromwell), and the Queen Mother (Sylvia Syms, watching the whole spectacle through eyes that are more amused than disapproving) -- continue with their plans to take their holiday at Balmoral. There, Philip takes the grandchildren out to pursue a regal stag that's been spotted on the estate, while Elizabeth tromps around defiantly in a Barbour and sensible oxfords, as if feeling the earth beneath her feet were the surest way of surveying her kingdom.
But Frears seemed to know that not even royal feelings are that simple: Diana is barely a presence in the picture, but a few judiciously chosen real-life film clips suggest both her charm (very real) and her clever manipulations (also very real). As Frears said in an interview with Slate, "The documentary footage in the film grew, if anything, in the cutting room, because Diana was so vivacious. It is, if you think about it, peculiar, to have a contest in a film between one woman who is an actress and one woman who is herself, and also dead."
But in the public-relations battle between Elizabeth II and her very popular ex-daughter-in-law, The Queen strongly suggests that, over time, it is Elizabeth who will rule the day. Old-fashioned and dutiful, she may believe it's part of her duty to hide the fact that she's human. But despite what Johnny Rotten said in his lacerating 1977 punk anthem "God Save the Queen," Elizabeth II is a human being, and Mirren's performance reflects that beautifully. At one point, she's driven to rare tears, perhaps partly over Diana's death and partly over the situation her former daughter-in-law has thrust her into. Frears and Mirren don't show us those tears, but Mirren tells us everything we need to know, even though all we see is the back of her head. Those silvery curls quiver ever so slightly. We know what Mirren's Elizabeth thinking, even though we can't see her face. That's how you respect the dignity of a monarch, while also allowing her the necessary luxury of complicated human feelings.
SOURCES:
IMDb
The New York Times
Slate
Producer: Andy Harries, Christine Langan, Tracey Seaward
Director: Stephen Frears
Screenplay: Peter Morgan
Cinematography: Affonso Beato
Music: Alexander Desplat
Film Editing: Lucia Zucchetti
Cast: Helen Mirren (The Queen), Michael Sheen (Tony Blair), James Cromwell (Prince Philip), Alex Jennings (Prince Charles), Roger Allam (Robin Janvrin), Sylvia Syms (Queen Mother), Helen McCrory (Cherie Blair)
[color, 103 minutes]
![The Queen](https://prod-images.tcm.com/img/film-participant-detail/Featured-Artilce_Placeholder.png)
The Queen
Quotes
Trivia
Miscellaneous Notes
Co-winner of the Audience Choice Award at the 2006 Chicago International Film Festival.
Winner of four 2006 awards including Best Actress (Helen Mirren), Best Supporting Actor (Michael Sheen), Best Screenplay and Best Music Score of the Year by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA).
Winner of four 2006 awards including Best Screenplay of the Year, Best British Director of the Year, Best British Actress of the Year (Helen Mirren) and the Attenborough Award by the London Critics' Circle.
Winner of the 2006 award for Best Actress (Helen Mirren) by the Boston Society of Film Critics (BSFC).
Winner of the 2006 award for Best Actress (Helen Mirren) by the National Board of Review (NBR).
Winner of the 2006 award for Best Actress (Helen Mirren) by the San Francisco Film Critics Circle (SFFCC).
Winner of the 2006 award for Best Actress (Helen Mirren) by the Screen Actors Guild (SAG).
Winner of the 2006 award for Best Actress (Helen Mirren) by the Washington DC Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA).
Winner of the 2006 award for Excellence in Contemporary Film by the Costume Designers Guild (CDG).
Winner of the Coppa Volpi for Best Female Actor (Helen Mirren) and the Osella for Best Screenplay awards at the 2006 Venice International Film Festival.
Winner of two 2006 awards including Best Actress (Helen Mirren) and Best Screenplay by the National Society of Film Critics (NSFC).
Winner of two 2006 awards including Best Actress (Helen Mirren) and Best Screenplay by the New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC).
Winner of two 2006 awards including Best Film and Best Actress (Helen Mirren) by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA).
Winner of two 2006 awards including Best Original Screenplay and Best Actress (Helen Mirren) by the Chicago Film Critics Association (CFCA).
Winner of two 2006 Satellite Awards including Best Actress - Drama (Helen Mirren) and Best Original Screenplay by the International Press Academy (IPA).
Released in United States Fall September 30, 2006
Limited Release in United States October 6, 2006
Expanded Release in United States October 13, 2006
Released in United States on Video April 24, 2007
Released in United States 2006
Released in United States October 2006
Shown at New York Film Festival (Opening Night) September 29-October 15, 2006.
Shown at Vancouver International Film Festival (Galas) September 28-October 13, 2006.
Shown at Venice International Film Festival (Competition) August 30-September 9, 2006.
Shown at Chicago International Film Festival October 5-19, 2006.
Project was included on the 2005 Black List.
Released in United States Fall September 30, 2006 (NY)
Limited Release in United States October 6, 2006
Expanded Release in United States October 13, 2006
Released in United States on Video April 24, 2007
Released in United States 2006 (Shown at New York Film Festival (Opening Night) September 29-October 15, 2006.)
Released in United States 2006 (Shown at Vancouver International Film Festival (Galas) September 28-October 13, 2006.)
Co-winner of the 2006 award for Best Director and winner of four 2006 awards including Best Picture, Best Actress (Helen Mirren), Best Supporting Actor (Michael Sheen) and Best Screenplay by the Toronto Film Critics Association (TFCA).
Released in United States 2006 (Shown at Venice International Film Festival (Competition) August 30-September 9, 2006.)
Released in United States October 2006 (Shown at Chicago International Film Festival October 5-19, 2006. )