This is my kinda film
incorporating politics, romance, tragedy, and a strong, unwavering belief in
one’s ideals which totally took me by surprise since I had never heard of it,
and then found out it was a nominee for Best Foreign Language Film. This movie
is an accurate account of political intrigue in the battle for progressive
reforms against the Danish Court’s conservative values that kept the Danish
people under their rule in poverty and ignorance.
A historical drama about the
increasingly “mad” King Christian VII (Mikkel Boe Folsgaard) of Denmark
(reigned 1766-1808) who is married off to an idealistic 15 year-old British
Princess of Wales ignorant of what she is getting into when she moves to the
throne in Copenhagen; this well educated youthful woman arrives into an
environment of conservative religious values and censorship. This is also the
period when the ideas of The Age of Enlightenment promoting intellectual
skepticism, humanism and scientific exploration pervaded European thought. Very
quickly the young Queen Caroline Mathilda (Alicia Vikander) realizes how
mentally ill her husband is–she fulfills her “duty” and gives him an heir to
the throne, and then she foregoes any further conjugal relations with him.
The catalytic force in this
movie is the arrival of German Dr. Johann Struensee (Mads Mikkelsen) who is hired to be the King’s personal
physician – a man who believes in fighting intolerance and making life more
humane for “the people,” through literally tending to them as a doctor, as well
as writing anonymous tracts publicizing the ideas of the Enlightenment such as
universal education, banishing censorship of the press, abolishing torture and
dissolving the slave trade in the colonies, etc. Struensee and the lonely,
isolated Queen become aware of their profound philosophical bond, which
eventually blossoms into a physical love affair albeit a dangerous liaison.
Together they are able to influence the King to enact laws which will improve
the lives of the Danish populace until intrigue and a backlash sets in.
A film which is very
well-acted, expressive, utopian and a history lesson which was not in my ken. I
visited Copenhagen recently and am sorry that I had not seen this movie before
visiting – I think the trip would have been even more meaningful.
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