Word: queens
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...paradoxical shifts in opinions provide a fitting close to what has been the most tumultuous year of the prime minister's political career. There were the public gaffes: calling President Obama "well-tanned"; getting scolded by the Queen after raising his voice at a London photo op; making German Chancellor Angela Merkel wait on the red carpet while he spoke on his cell phone. Then there was his private life: his wife of 20 years filing for divorce; her accusations that he "frequents underage females"; a Bari prostitute revealing details of several encounters at his Rome residence.(Read "Hoq Silvio...
...fresh scones at the Forth Floor brasserie, tel: (44-131) 524 8350, in the Harvey Nichols department store. For a spot of sightseeing, I'd take a taxi to the Royal Mile to look at the spectacular Scottish Parliament building, tel: (44-131) 348 5000, and Holyrood Palace, the Queen's official residence in Scotland. I'd then grab some lunch at the Witchery, tel: (44-131) 225 5613, one of Edinburgh's best restaurants and, in the afternoon, walk over to Edinburgh Castle, tel: (44-131) 225 9846, the iconic fortress that dominates the city skyline. From there...
...Duchess and her "adviser" (in both boudoir and boardroom), the glowering Sir John Conroy (Mark Strong), try to strong-arm Victoria into signing over her power to her mother, just in case King William dies before she turns 18. We want her to be Queen so she can finally say, "Off with his head." Conroy is the film's only outright villain, but he's not really much source of tension: once she's Queen, she's the boss. Nor are Lord M. or Lehzen, even though they try to manipulate the young Queen, because this is primarily a love...
...birthday banquet, quite in his cups, trashing Victoria's mother. It's a funny bit, ending with Richardson huffing off and some dry old man saying, ruefully, "Families." This scene has the mark of something written expressly for Broadbent by Fellowes, but in Lytton Strachey's biography Queen Victoria, and again in Christopher Hibbert's, you'll find that scene, told exactly as it is onscreen. The only difference is that Blunt's Victoria doesn't burst into tears as the real princess apparently did; the movie heroine has more backbone...
...perhaps in deference to the contemporary audience's desire to see Victoria as a Queen shaping her own destiny, the movie tilts the balance of romantic power somewhat, giving us a Victoria gradually won over by Albert's attentions. He grumbles to his brother about the political nature of the courtship ("What do you say about a man who waits for a rich woman?"), but he's soon got the mushy look of a man more than ready to fulfill his duty. The suggestion is that he'll offer her an alliance of equals. Discussing the subject of husbands...