Film on Princess Diana, Queen Elizabeth wows Venice

Last Updated: Sunday, September 3, 2006 | 12:57 PM ET

CBC Arts

The Queen by British director Stephen Frears, which offers an intimate portrayal of the aftermath of the death of Diana, the Princess of Wales, is generating early Oscar buzz at the 63rd Venice Film Festival.

The film, which premiered Saturday in Venice, mixes archival television coverage with dramatizations of behind-the-scenes events as it shows Queen Elizabeth struggling to determine the appropriate public response to Diana's death in a car crash in Paris on Aug. 31, 1997.

The Queen is among the early favourites for the Golden Lion, the top prize at the Venice festival, which closes on Sept. 9. Meanwhile, Helen Mirren's portrayal of the stoic monarch has garnered rave reviews from critics, and Mirren, Frears and other cast members received a 15-minute standing ovation after the premiere, according to news agency AFP.

Success in Venice has been known to attract the attention of Academy Award voters.

Frears, who directed the 2000 film High Fidelity starring John Cusack, has twice had a film nominated for the Golden Lion — in 2000 for Liam and in 2002 for Dirty Pretty Things. His film The Grifters, starring Cusack as a small-time conman torn between his girlfriend and his mother (Anjelica Huston), earned Frears a nomination for the best-director Oscar in 1991.

Conflict between Royal Family, PM

The Queen deals with the conflict between the Royal Family and newly elected British Prime Minister Tony Blair, played by Michael Sheen, following Diana's death.

While Queen Elizabeth seeks to protect the dignity of the monarchy by urging a private mourning for the woman who divorced her son, Prince Charles, in 1997, Blair argues that the appearance of inaction could permanently damage the monarchy.

Caught in between is a nervous Charles, played by Alex Jennings, who struggles to persuade his mother that Diana's popularity requires her to go against protocol.

'The Queen has gone up to the pantheon of untouchable queens, while history now makes clear that Diana was a troubled figure and she wasn't the archangel or icon.'-The Queen's scriptwriter, Peter Morgan

The Queen's scriptwriter, Peter Morgan, said the nine years that have elapsed since Diana's death were necessary to give the events proper perspective.

"You needed the time for the spectacle of Diana's death to diminish," Morgan said. "You realize now that the Queen's memory eclipses that of Diana's.

"The Queen has gone up to the pantheon of untouchable queens, while history now makes clear that Diana was a troubled figure and she wasn't the archangel or icon."

Stone, Lee tackle other tragedies

Two other films depicting infamous calamities are also appearing in Venice.

Oliver Stone's World Trade Center, currently being shown in U.S. theatres, tells the story of two New York City Port Authority officers trapped inside the twin towers after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by al-Qaeda militants.

Spike Lee's documentary, When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, about the Hurricane Katrina disaster, debuted on HBO this week — a year after Katrina devastated New Orleans.