Critical Essay | Critical Essay by James Shelley Hamilton

Critical Essay by James Shelley Hamilton

Queen Christina follows quite closely the career of Sweden's notorious seventeenth century queen as it was known to most of her contemporaries, without benefit of modern pathological psychology. The one serious concession it makes to presumed movie demands is in giving Christina an abiding passionate love for the Spanish ambassador, whereas the rumors of the time credited her with no more than a passing affair of scandal…. Where the film falls down as an historical picture is chiefly in its failure to suggest the cold and rugged Sweden of those rough days when the warrior sons of the Vikings took up the Protestant banner and made such a stir in Europe. Mamoulian's silken direction has a strangely softening effect on the scenes he is depicting, which distorts history far more than mere departures from recorded fact. (pp. 11-12)

James Shelley Hamilton, "Two Queens," in National Board of Review Magazine...
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