World News and Prophecy: Review/Analysis of The Queen
A religious perspective on the attitude towards leadership as a form of 'service', with reference to a duty to God.
Candle in the Wind
Video of Elton John's Lady Diana version of Candle in the Wind, as performed at Lady Diana's funeral. Go here for lyrics and some analysis.
Earl of Spencer's Eulogy for Princess Diana - Video
Earl of Spencer's Eulogy for Princess Diana - Text
Diana's continued impact on the Press
Diana-related headlines from after her death.
Past and Practice Questions
Practice questions for Module C: History and Memory.
The Official Website of the British Monarchy - home page.
The Queen's page - Biography and facts about the Queen
Princess Diana's page - Biography and facts about Princess Diana
Royal flags at half-mast for anniversary of Princess Diana's death. - News article.
Hysteria after Diana's Death: A Myth or Reality?
Canadian article about British mass hysteria following Diana's death.
Helen Mirren Interview
An interview with Helen Mirren on the making of The Queen and her reflections on who the Queen is and how she built her performance as based on her.
Welcome to Emanuel Levy: Review/Analysis of The Queen
An in-depth review of The Queen and how it depicts the relationship between England and it's Royal Family.
The Queen - In Her Own words
Footage and audio material of the Queen reflecting on her position.
She says, "If you live in this sort of life, which people don't very much, you live very much by tradition and continuity. I think that's one of the sad things - that people don't take on jobs for life". It's interesting to hear her talk about her position and the way she presents herself to the public, especially since she almost never gives interviews and is generally a fairly enigmatic figure. It's also good to compare her voice here to her voice in official addresses, so you can hear the difference between her public and private personas.
Princess Diana funeral address from the Queen
The real funeral address that Helen Mirren recreates in The Queen.
Memorial Speech
Prince Harry remembers his mother and how she would've liked to be remembered. This ties in to the way the public perceives her.
Interview Part 1
Interview Part 2
Interview Part 3
Interview Part 4
Interview Part 5
Interview Part 6
The infamous Panorama interview conducted by Martin Bashir with Princess Diana, as partially seen in the film The Queen.
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
A review of The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (a possible related text). It's also worth reading the in-depth (opposing) film analysis in the comments section under the review.
Other Texts
There are a variety of films that deal with how historical figures have been represented, or ideas of public perceptions vs. the reality of a situation. Here are just a few that might be worth checking out as related texts, though it's worth noting that there are a lot of biopics out there that might be worth checking out. If you have time you might also want to check out the biography or historical section of your local bookstore in order to examine conflicting historical perspectives and how authors factor this in to their attempts to represent real life events or people.
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
- A film that looks at similar ideas of public perception and idolisation after death.
American Splendour
- Half documentary and half fiction, features the real life Harvey Pekar reflecting on his life alongside Paul Giamatti recreating Pekar's life for the purposes of a more traditional film narrative. Also features some metafictional interplay between the the real Pekar and the Giamatti-Pekar.
Waltz with Bashir
- Documentary about Israeli atrocities that uses animation as a force for representing undocumented history.
I'm Not There
- Multiple fictionalised representations of Bob Dylan that explore different facets of his life.
The Life and Death of Peter Sellers
- Biopic of actor/comedian Peter Sellers that suggests he was so devoid of personality that he needed to adopt acting personas.
Also, some novels to get you started...
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (the first true crime novel, it also meticulously lays out how Capote incorporates the research process into his work and how he reconciles the contradictions he comes across)
McQueen by Christopher Sandford (an in-depth biography of iconic actor Steve McQueen that examines and attempts to reconcile conflicting viewpoints into it's narrative).
DisneyWar by James B. Stewart (a business-orientated chronicle of the Disney corporation throughout the 1990s and 2000s... this one is of interest because it also incorporates in-depth research and doesn't shy away from the way the history it constructs is represented by conflicting viewpoints).
OMG. I have been hunting high and low for related texts on the misunderstood historical figures. Thank god for your website. You don't come up first in the search list in google.
ReplyDeleteYour blog only appeared when I typed this in the engine: collective memory The Queen unpopularity Princess Diana
Once again, thank you for this rich resource on this text. It's relatively new -- I understand the prescribed film before was Memento by Christopher Nolan? -- and there's not a lot of resources out there. It's really torturous analysing this film coupled with an elective so difficult to grasp (History and Memory) enough.
Do you think as a related text with the Queen, it would be OK to analyse another film like American Splendour? Can you pass American Splendour off as a documentary or would you need to say it's a film?
ReplyDeleteSorry I didn't see this question sooner, I don't check this blog very often.
ReplyDeleteAmerican Splendour is a tricky one, I would probably now classify it as a documentary. It's not unknown for a lot of older documentaries to use dramatisations (sequences using actors) to illustrate a subject, I think American Splendour is a throwback to this kind of thing.
If you use it as a related text you will want to talk about the way American Splendour uses dramatisation as a technique, and look at the way it represents history (being the Pekar's personal history).
That's alright. Not many people do the Queen.
ReplyDeleteHuh. Yeah that's strange for a documentary to act like entirely like a film. You usually see documentaries in a certain format like voice-over narrating historical events, stills, bad acting etc.
Anyway, thanks for that.
No problems. Good luck!
ReplyDeletehow would you analyze the life and death of peter sellers?
ReplyDelete