Mary Queen of Scots Queen of Scotland (1971)

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Movie
German title Mary Queen of Scots Queen of Scotland
Original title Mary, Queen of Scots
Country of production United Kingdom
original language English
Publishing year 1971
length 128 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Charles Jarrott
script John Hale
production Hal B. Wallis
music John Barry
camera Christopher Challis
cut Richard Marden
occupation

Maria Stuart, Queen of Scotland (original title Mary, Queen of Scots ) is a feature film by the British - Canadian director Charles Jarrott from 1971 . The historical drama is based on an original screenplay by John Hale and was produced by the film studio Universal Pictures . The title role is with Vanessa Redgrave , the cast of her adversary Queen Elizabeth I with Glenda Jackson . Patrick McGoohan , Timothy Dalton and Nigel Davenport can be seen in leading roles . The film was nominated for five Academy Awards.

action

At the age of eighteen, Maria Stuart , wife of the Crown Prince of France , became a widow. After the death of her husband, she is no longer welcome at the French royal court and returns to her native Scotland , where her half-brother James Stuart reigns after the death of her mother . Maria soon finds herself caught in a web of intrigue. James stands up against his half-sister, who also has claims to the English throne. The new regent is increasingly confronted with the Protestant Scottish aristocracy, who fear the spread of Catholicism through Mary, who grew up in France. Maria Stuart is at first dismayed by the politics of the Scottish royal court, but has been able to distinguish herself and defend the throne during the years of her reign.

Her cousin, Elizabeth I of England , who is indulging in a secret affair with her stable master, is suspicious of the actions of Mary, who enters into an unsuccessful marriage with the feeble and self-loving Lord Henry Darnley and then with Lord Bothwell , which turns out to be a big mistake . In addition, one of her closest confidants, David Rizzio , falls victim to a murder plot. Marriage to Bothwell, Mary's great love, throws the Scottish queen into doom, as he is rumored to be involved in the death of her first husband, Lord Darnley. The rebellious Scottish nobles oppose Mary Queen of Scots, who flees to England from the uprising. The coldly calculating Elizabeth, however, sees a danger in Catholic Mary, who is viewed by the Catholic minority in England as the rightful heir to the British throne. After a meeting of the two cousins, which becomes the final exchange between Maria and Elizabeth, Elizabeth has Maria imprisoned.

Mary Queen of Scots, who insists on acting in good faith and regrets being separated from her son by imprisonment, is sentenced to death. Mary makes peace with God and is executed by beheading at Fotheringhay Castle .

History of origin, shooting

The historical drama was created two years after Charles Jarrott's successful film debut Queen for a Thousand Days , in which Mary Queen of Scots producer Hal B. Wallis , screenwriter John Hale, costume designer Margaret Furse and film editor Richard Marden also participated, as well as that Film studio Universal Pictures was involved as a US film distributor . The original plan was to film the historical drama about Maria Stuart with the French-Canadian actress Geneviève Bujold , who celebrated her international breakthrough for a thousand days with the title role of Anne Boleyn in Queen . Bujold, who was under contract with Universal Pictures, decided to step out of production, which resulted in the film studio filing a $ 750,000 damages lawsuit against her. The British Vanessa Redgrave could be won as a replacement , while her compatriot Glenda Jackson played Queen Elizabeth as an opponent. Patrick McGoohan , Timothy Dalton , Trevor Howard , Daniel Massey and Ian Holm joined the acting ensemble, which consisted mainly of British actors . The plot of the film comes from an original script by John Hale, who, in order to increase the drama of the subject, staged a meeting between Maria Stuart and Elizabeth I, similar to Friedrich Schiller in his well-known drama Maria Stuart, which appeared in 1800 had done. In fact, the two queens never met.

The shooting took place in France Château de Chenonceau , England and Scotland. The English castles of Alnwick Castle and Bamburgh Castle in Northumberland served as the backdrop for Holyrood Palace , the temporary Scottish residence of Mary Queen of Scots . Parham Park in West Sussex was the godfather of Fotheringhay Castle , where Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I meet in the film . Further filming took place in the Scottish Hermitage Castle , while the studio filming took place in the well-known Shepperton Studios in Surrey , England . As with Queen for a Thousand Days , Maria Stuart, Queen of Scotland used 35 mm film and cameras from Panavision , which is customary in the industry .

Remarks

Vanessa Redgrave was not able to speak French when filming began. So she had to learn the title song of the film, "Vivre et Mourir", phonetically. Mary Queen of Scots was nineteen when she arrived in Leith, Scotland on August 19, 1561, which is in contrast to Redgrave's age, who was 34 at the time of filming.

With the fee that the politically active Vanessa Redgrave earned from Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland and the subsequent horror film The Devils by Ken Russell , she founded the Vanessa Redgrave Nursery School in 1973 , a kindergarten in an impoverished suburb of London.

reception

Mary Queen of Scots celebrated its national US theatrical release on February 2, 1972 in New York . The theatrical release in the Federal Republic of Germany followed on March 30, 1972. Charles Jarrott's second cinema production was particularly famous for the play of the two leading actresses Vanessa Redgrave and Glenda Jackson, who were among the most renowned theater and screen actresses in the 1970s. In the same year Jackson played the English monarch again in the six-part TV mini-series Elizabeth R , for which John Hale also worked as a screenwriter. The production was generally described as a historical soap opera and viewed as too pathetic, which was attributed to weaknesses in John Hale's film script. For director Charles Jarrott it was the last success in international cinema. After he unsuccessfully in 1973 Frank Capra's classic Lost Horizon (1937) as a musical (dt. Lost Horizon ) , among others, with Peter Finch and Liv Ullmann directed, remained his commitment to large film productions denied. Jarrott then worked with success mainly on US and Canadian television .

Maria Stuart, Queen of Scotland was released on February 11, 2011 with a German soundtrack on DVD, publisher: Alive-Vertrieb und Marketing.

Reviews

“Fresh after their triumph of 'Queen for a Thousand Days', the team of director Charles Jarrott and producer Hall Wallis felt it was unnecessary to look beyond the rivalry between Maria and Elizabeth on their next historic soap opera… Vanessa Redgrave is a tall, direct and spirited one Maria and Glenda Jackson makes a perfectly quarrelsome, wise Elizabeth. ”- Chicago Sun-Times , Chicago

"... Hal B. Wallis" Mary, Queen of Scotland, "stars two as usual great actresses - Vanessa Redgrave in the title role and Glenda Jackson as Elizabeth - in an unusually loveless, dispassionate costume drama." - The New York Times , new York

"Stiff and viscous historical film, which mainly relies on the staging of expensive show values ​​in the style of old paintings and on the sovereign play of its actors." - Lexicon of international film (CD-ROM edition), Systhema, Munich 1997

“Psychological chamber play of feudal-clerical power politics.” - Abendzeitung , Munich

“Not very authentic, opulently photographed life picture (...); An excellent, balanced team of actors creates a somewhat too smooth picture of Tudor England in multi-faceted episodes. ”(Rating: 3 stars = very good) - Adolf Heinzlmeier and Berndt Schulz in Lexicon“ Films on TV ” (extended new edition). Rasch and Röhring, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-89136-392-3 , p. 547.

Kino.de was of the opinion: “Opulent historical soap opera, which doesn't always take the facts too seriously, but instead has two brilliant leading actresses in addition to high viewing figures: Vanessa Redgrave (...) in the title role, Glenda Jackson (...) as her English rival Elisabeth. "

Awards

At the Oscars ceremony on April 10, 1972 (official census 1971) in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, Mary Queen of Scots was nominated for five Oscars, including leading actress Vanessa Redgrave, who joined her American colleague Jane Fonda ( Klute ) had to give up. Glenda Jackson, who was preferred in the category “Best Actress” for John Schlesinger's relationship drama Sunday, Bloody Sunday , was not nominated. At the Golden Globe Awards two months earlier, the historical drama had also been nominated for five awards, including Jackson and Redgrave in the category "Best Actress in a Drama" and the film in the category "Best Film Drama", where Jane Fonda and William Friedkin's thriller and later Oscar winner French Connection - Focal Point Brooklyn triumphed. Furthermore, Vanessa Regrave and Glenda Jackson were awarded the Italian film prize David di Donatello in the same year for their achievements as Maria Stuart and Elizabeth I.

Oscar 1971

  • nominated in the categories
    • "Best Actress" (Vanessa Redgrave)
    • "Best equipment"
    • "Best Dramatic Score"
    • "Best Costumes"
    • "Best sound"

Golden Globe 1972

  • nominated in the categories
    • "Best Film - Drama"
    • "Best Screenplay"
    • "Best Actress - Drama" (Glenda Jackson)
    • "Best Actress - Drama" (Vanessa Redgrave)
    • "Best Score"

Further

David di Donatello 1972

  • Special Prize (Glenda Jackson and Vanessa Redgrave)

1972 Evening Standard British Film Awards

  • "Best Actress" (Glenda Jackson)

literature

  • John Hale : Mary, Queen of Scots. The Book of the Film from an Original Screenplay by John Hale . New American Library, New York 1972 (English edition)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Maria Stuart, Queen of Scotland Ill. DVD case (in the picture: Vanessa Redgrave, Glenda Jackson)
  2. ↑ Maria Stuart, Queen of Scotland sS kino.de. Retrieved October 24, 2018.