A ROYAL AFFAIR
Denmark, 2012, 130 minutes, Colour.
Mads Mikkelsen, Alicia Vikander.
Directed by Nikolaj Arcel.
An interesting costume drama where sets and costumes have not been stinted. It certainly looks the part.
The setting is Denmark in the 1760s and 1770s, a valuable story for Danish history and a story not too familiar for other audiences. The opening alerts the audience to the Enlightenment and how it flourished in this century, a return to reason instead of faith (and superstition), a dream of equality and dignity for all, an ideal of freedom for society. The French Revolution was just over a decade away as the film ends.
This is also the story of Princess Caroline Matilda of England, bound to an arranged marriage to Christian VII of Denmark. A young, beautiful and cultured woman, she leaves with high hopes. They are soon dashed. The king is mentally unstable, skittish in public manners and profligate in behaviour.
The film does begin by letting the audience know that Caroline sealed her fate and exile by an affair with Dr Johann Struensee. She is writing to her children to explain what she has done.
Dr Struensee (Mads Mikkelson, like a passive Jack Palance) is an Enlightenment thinker and writer (anonymously). Friends suggest he become physician to Christian who is on a year’s tour of Europe. The two click (helped by a love of quotations from Shakespeare) and Johann is able to guide the king to better behaviour. He becomes chief adviser, despite hostility from the nobility and the Council, eventually replacing the Council, and pushing through all kinds of enlightened and progressive legislation, from inoculation against smallpox, to the abolition of scensorship and capital punishment. For a while, Denmark set a model for the rest of Europe.
Someone quotes how Lancelot’s affair with Guinevere destroyed Camelot. It is apt, of course, when Johann and the queen (initially hostile but impressed by his ideas and manner) begin a liaison. A jealous Dowager queen and conservative nobles are able to arrest John and banish the queen. They also restore the kingdom to the status quo.
The film offers enough to reflect on with insights into this experience of royalty and Enlightenment. Cahracter performances are strong. This seems a story of folly and failure, a postscript adds that Caroline’s son, Frederick, staged a coup when he was sixteen and began a fifty five year reign that saw the implementation of so many of the Enlightenment ideas.
1. Costume drama? The appeal to the wide audience? A story of royalty? Of the Commons? Politics and intrigue?
2. A Danish production, the insights into Danish history? The 18th century into the 19th?
3. The lavish costumes, sets, decor, the palace, interiors, the contrast with the poverty in the city of Copenhagen? In Altona?
4. England and the palace, the Danish countryside, Altona? The musical score?
5. The framing of the film with Caroline writing her story, for her children, separated from them, her fate, the ending with the children reading her story?
6. The arranged marriage, England and Denmark, Caroline not knowing her husband, Christian’s reputation, her eagerness, the advice given about the marriage? Her travel, meeting the lady-in-waiting, a strong friendship? Meeting the king, his skittish behaviour and revealing himself? In the carriage, awkward? His greeting the dog with enthusiasm?
7. The Danish court, Juliane and the dowager queen? Her son-in-waiting? Status, preserving the status quo? The head minister, his age, his power in the kingdom? The effect of the marriage? The council and their attitude towards the king? The meal, the night and the king making advances, Caroline’s reaction, his behaviour, the effect? Her pregnancy?
8. The character of the king, his age, his upbringing, spoilt? His love of acting? His whims? Caroline playing the piano and his rude interruption? The tour for one year? Caroline alone, the pregnancy, the birth of Frederick?
9. The sequences in Altona, Johann and his work, his presence in Denmark? The enlightenment, his writings, his father as a pastor, his own religious attitudes, especially towards God? His friends and their suggestion he become the royal physician? Asking for him to bring them back to court? His ideas, meeting the king, the invitation, becoming the royal physician?
10. Meeting the king, getting on well with him, the Shakespeare quotations? The friends coming back to court? His medical treatment of the king, his advice? The return to court, Caroline not enthusiastic about Johann? The antagonism of the dowager and the nobles?
11. Johann in himself, his strengths of character, his decision to become the royal physician, his attitude towards the council, sitting in, listening to the legislation, offering his advice to the king, his reactions to the king’s behaviour and steering him in acting properly? The smallpox outbreak, the inoculation and its success, the suggestion that all be inoculated, the council and its problems with cash?
12. Johann and his power, the various decrees from the king, the abolishing of the council, the dismissing of the members? Their reactions and anger?
13. Johann and his ideas, the enlightenment? Caroline and her admiration, sharing discussions with him, the dance, the beginning of the relationship, her pregnancy, the cover by inviting the king to her room? Then her rationalising for his absence?
14. The nature of the reforms, their range? Plots against Johann, the maid and her evidence from the bedroom? The anonymous writings and accusations? Johann and his lies to the king? The king believing him?
15. Johann and his work, advising the king that he needn’t sign every document? The king and his absence, his erratic behaviour, the gift of the little black boy and his enjoying his company?
16. The arrest of Johann, going to prison, his being tortured, the false promise of a pardon? The visitor, in the carriage, Brandt with him? Brandt’s execution? Johann slipping in the blood, the crowds and their anticipation, his death?
17. Caroline, taken, exile, missing her children, the friendship of the lady-in-waiting?
18. The king and the dowager, her merciless attitude, especially towards Caroline and the children? The coup, the king being kept away, his anticipation of the pardon and his being thwarted? The merciless officials?
19. The 18th century and the background of change, the nature of the enlightenment, Christian and his work with Johann, the legislation, abolishing censorship, torture, capital punishment? Benefits for ordinary people? A model for Europe, the congratulations of Voltaier? Johann and his changing his attitude once the accusations were made anonymously, bringing back censorship? The nobles and the regression to mediaeval styles?
20. Frederick and Louise, reading their mother’s story? The information about Frederick, his coup at age sixteen, reigning for fifty-five years and implementing so much of the previous legislation?
