Books/TV/Films about the Stuarts

[Kimberly]

Try the Monty Python version ;
http://www.orangecow.org/pythonet/sketches/penguin.htm

[Eric_Lowe]

That's a riot ! 

[ivanushka]

I'm still not convinced that this movie will ever get made.  I hope it does as I'd love to see a new biopic of MQoS, but I just have a feeling that Scarlett and her team may decide that what with The Other Boleyn Girl she may slightly be overdosing on period dramas (and the producers may feel that with the forthcoming Cate Blanchett film The Golden Age the market for Sixteenth century films may be saturated).  According to the IMDB summary the script is still with directors.  Hmmm...

[FaithWhiteRose]

  According to the IMDB summary the script is still with directors. 

Hope it gets leaked onto the internet... 

[Eric_Lowe]

Well...Quite a lot of sex can get into the movie. 

[FaithWhiteRose]

....'specially with Scarlett Johansson in it!

[Eric_Lowe]

I agree...Mary with Darney, Francois II and of couse sexy Brothwell who some say raped her...

[FaithWhiteRose]

And with Hollywood making this film, they would try their best to exaggerate it.

[Eric_Lowe]

Yes...Mary's life is high drama already. Being at the court of Catherine de Medici, the barbaric court of Scotland (the murder of Rizzo), the enforced abdication, the rape by Bothwell, the long imprisonment by Elisabeth I and her dramatic exit at Fortheringay.

[ivanushka]

Sounds like it's going to be a very long movie!  If it ever gets made...

Assuming it does, they'll probably just deal with her years in Scotland and then a few final scenes about her imprisonment and death.  A pity if they do as the French years and imprisonment years are great stories in their own right.

[Eric_Lowe]

I don't think it would cover less than the Vanessa Redgrave version. 

[Vasaborg]

"Queen over the Water" by Mary Hopkirk, published 1953, is a very good book on the life of Mary Beatrice of Modena.

[boleynfan]

Just watched Mary Queen of Scots with Vanessa Redgrave, not having seen it for many years. My first viewing was on the flight home from England when I was 11.  It helped to cement my fascination with Tudor/Stuart history.

I'd like to hear everyone's opinion on this film.  On the Tudor thread, we've been bemoaning recent TV and film productions for their lack of accuracy and their sometimes bizarre casting.  This film shows how these subjects can be done right. I think Vanessa Redgrave was pitch perfect, in both appearance and performance.  Timothy Dalton was just as I always imagined Darnley to be.  Yes, there were the two meetings with Elizabeth (the best of all time, Glenda Jackson) added in, but overall, the accuracy was there.  Walsingham didn't seduce Mary de Guise then kill her in this one....snark to Elizabeth with Blanchett in it...  Costuming was beautiful and the score by Barry is excellent.

Comments, anyone?

[Kimberly]

I haven't seen this film for a couple of years but I love it. There are REAL actors in it for a start. Not only was Redgrave and Jackson magnificent but also I thought Patrick Macgoon (sp) and Ian Holm were perfectly cast. It is as sumptuous to look at too, very much like Anne of the Thousand Days.

[dmitri]

This was quite a brilliant film. In certain areas it was not historically accurate. This does not take away from the sheer beauty of the film and the incredibly fine acting. It is quite a classic. Redgrave gave a superb performance as did many others mentioned above.