Mary Queen of Scots

[gt3]

Went to see this at the weekend. Really enjoyed it. As with The Favourite, the central performances from Margot Robbie and Saoirse Ronan are excellent. I didn't recognise David Tennant at first, he's so heavily disguised.

I wonder if it hasn't got the critical traction that The Favourite has because it's a much more "conventional" film. Personally I think it's the better film as a complete experience.

I don't know how historically accurate the film is. But it comes across a very "woke" film - describing how despite the strength of both women they were often undone by the machinations of the men around them.

It's also wonderful to look at - it's inspired me to try and visit bits of Scotland that aren't Edinburgh. The sequence in the hut with the hanging linen is beautifully choreographed.

Recommended.

[Sits]

Any beheadings? We like a good Tudor drama but Mrs. S has a major problem with beheadings. She had to leave the room twice during the Wolf Hall series which fortunately I had seen previously, so could provide warning.

[Satchmo Distel]

Are the English played as baddies?

[Lang Spoon]

From what I've heard the cartoonish Knox and Scots nobility provide that role.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

I'd quite like to see this movie. They should definitely nail the oscar for special effects. I look a lot more like Queen Elizabeth than Margot Robbie does.

[blameless]

From what I've heard the cartoonish Knox and Scots nobility provide that role.

It would be nigh-on impossible to portray John Knox as any more of a knuckle-dragging bigot than he was in real life anyway.

Not seen this yet, but echo Sits question re decapitations - mrs b's also not a fan of blood and gore.

[Lang Spoon]

I'm certainly no fan of Knoxy, wish the French had just killed him as opposed to employing him as a galley slave who'd eventually be freed and become an even more massive fundamentalist bastard in fuckin Calvin's Geneva. But by all accounts the portrayal is ultra high camp hysterical.

There was a method to Knox's cuntiness, let alone his being more or less an agent of the English Secret Service (his first wife's family were well-connected English Gentry).

[Lang Spoon]

I'd quite like to see this movie. They should definitely nail the oscar for special effects. I look a lot more like Queen Elizabeth than Margot Robbie does.

Wee Saoirse doesn't strike me as a natural statuesque Mary either. And judging by the trailer she'd have been better off affecting Mary's real French accent rather than her attempt at Scotch.

[Lang Spoon]

A good romp. As felicity noted elsewhere, a little disconcerting that all Scotland seems to resemble Glencoe or the Cairngorms, but I enjoyed it far more than I was expecting to. Far better than the Netflix Robert the Bruce joint.

[Lang Spoon]

It would be nigh-on impossible to portray John Knox as any more of a knuckle-dragging bigot than he was in real life anyway.

Not seen this yet, but echo Sits question re decapitations - mrs b's also not a fan of blood and gore.

The most gory bit is Rizzio's offing.

[Lang Spoon]

Don't think it's the easiest to follow if not already aware of the story- Herself enjoyed it more than The Favourite but couldn't always work out what exactly Moray, Bothwell etc were up to.

[Sits]

After all that Mrs. S is boycotting on inaccuracy grounds ie the meeting that didn't happen. She knows this period a lot better than me and reckons it would have made a major difference to outcomes.

[gt3]

After all that Mrs. S is boycotting on inaccuracy grounds ie the meeting that didn't happen. She knows this period a lot better than me and reckons it would have made a major difference to outcomes.

I think Mrs S may be cutting off her nose to spite her face. It doesn't present itself as history. I know the meeting never happened, but one imagines it was better cinema than having an extended epistolary section.

[Lang Spoon]

The weirdest thing is Mary's imprisonment at Loch Leven and forced abdication, then her escape and last doomed battle against Teh Prods at Langside before her flight isn't dealt with at all really, she just meekly fucks off to England after being told no one would fight for her.

Maybe the most most action packed bit of the story, and a part where she had real agency (she led her troops into battle) is ignored in favour of turning her into being a pure helpless victim. Strange for a film that seems to want to have feminist credentials.

em, spoilers

[Lang Spoon]

There's probably a decent fillum to be made about Bothwell and his comeuppance in Scandinavia for 10 year previous love rat behaviour as well. Don't fuck about with Bergen girls.