It's hard to conceive of a world where Elizabeth II will not be Queen.
For many of us, the Queen has been a constant throughout our entire lives.
For those of us aged 70 or below, there has been no other British Monarch.
During that time, she has known 14 Prime Ministers, met four Popes and 13 US Presidents.
During her reign, the UK joined the European Economic Community and left the European Union 47 years later.
Soldiers were deployed in Egypt, Northern Ireland, the Falklands, Sierra Leone, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Scotland contemplated and rejected independence.
Quebec and Australia also said no to becoming republics.
Man has walked on the Moon and England won the soccer World Cup just once in 1966 and the rugby World Cup in 2003.
JFK and his brother Bobby Kennedy were assassinated, as were the Rev Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.
Nelson Mandela was released from Robben Island and eventually became the President of South Africa.
The Eastern Bloc crumbled with the fall of the Berlin Wall, with Vladimir Putin trying to re-establish Russian might, while China's influence has grown.
On several occasions, the Queen met Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness, who had confessed to being in the IRA, after a seemingly intractable conflict in Northern Ireland ended in the 1990s and led to power sharing between unionists and nationalists.
Throughout her reign, Britain has exerted a huge cultural influence in art, music, theatre, cinema, literature, comedy and fashion from the Beatles, David Bowie and Stormzy to Alfred Hitchcock, Vivien Westwood and Maggie Smith to Alan Bennett, JK Rowling, Banksy and Monty Python.
Earlier this month, Britain marked her Platinum Jubilee with two public holidays and a weekend of events.
Beacons were lit, street parties were held, parades were organised, thanksgiving services were held and a star studded concert took place outside Buckingham Palace.
It was a time of celebration for ardent monarchists and the vast majority of her subjects.
But it was also a time of reflection, as British society thought about her 70 years on the throne and about the eventual handing over of the Crown to Prince Charles and then Prince William.
It is in this context that Roger Michell's final act as a director has surfaced in cinemas and on Amazon Prime.
'Elizabeth: A Portrait in Parts' is a cinematic ode to the Monarch's 70 year reign.
With the help of film editor Joanna Crickmay, Michell, who passed away in September, assembles an audiovisual collage of clips from her life and her 70 years on the throne.
Mixing TV clips with footage of state occasions, HMS Britannia excursions, trips to Balmoral and Royal Ascot and snatched conversations with Princess Anne and Palace officials, it is a meticulously researched visual essay reflecting on her reign.
It is also a remarkably playful affair and is all the more enjoyable for it.
Completed just before his death, Michell begins the documentary to the sound of an orchestra tuning.
But soon he blasts us with the sound of Robbie Williams' performing 'Let Me Entertain You' at the Palace over a montage of images of Queen Elizabeth over the years.
These are spliced with various comic portrayals of the Monarch and even a bit of 'Peppa Pig' - setting the tone for what is an irreverent, yet affectionate reflection on her time on the throne.
Michell breaks his film up into several sections covering different aspects of her life.
He glides from watching David Attenborough guide her before a recording of the annual "Queen's Speech" at Christmas to another section entitled "Ma'am" where he captures images of officials outlining the protocol for meeting the Queen.
There's a clip of The Beatles getting their MBEs at the Palace and of an official searching index cards of all the Honours recipients as he explains how John Lennon handed his medal back in 1969 for "a variety of reasons".
Dawn French amuses as she explains in a clip from 'The Graham Norton Show' how celebrities are often so nervous in the Queen's presence, they tend to laugh madly at everything she says as if she is the funniest person in the world.
Another section entitled 'Citizens of Rome' compares and contrasts the pomp and circumstance of various Royal Flotillas down the River Thames to the grandiosity of Joseph L Mankiewicz's 1962 Hollywood epic 'Cleopatra' with Elizabeth Taylor.
And so it rolls on splicing images of the former Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley talking about her importance to the Commonwealth with footage of her travelling through various nations by train.
Over Nat King Cole's silky smooth rendition of 'Mona Lisa,' we see her sitting for portraits before Michell launches into fake security camera footage of a woman pretending to be the Queen being thrown out of a West End club and hopping in and out of a black cab.
There is some fascinating vintage footage of her and Prince Philip being escorted by the broadcaster Eamonn Andrews as she visits the set of the BBC children's show 'Crackerjack'.
And she is at her most animated as we get behind the scenes footage of her in the Royal Box at Ascot with the Queen Mother, watching horse racing.
Michell doesn't gloss over the darker moments and in a section called 'Horrobilis,' he moulds together a montage of clips of Windsor Castle on fire in 1992, Princess Anne, Prince Charles and Prince Andrews' weddings followed by their divorces.
The Duke of York's claim in the infamous BBC 'Newsnight' interview about not being able to sweat appears, as does news footage of angry members of the public berating the Royals for not flying the flag at half mast following the death of Princess Diana or leading the public in grief immediately after the car crash.
This is a rare sombre moment in an otherwise light hearted documentary which packs music from George Formby, Madness, Handel, Irving Berlin, The Beatles, Gracie Fields, Mozart, Noel Coward and Stormzy in with a breathtaking barrage of TV clips including her famous appearance in 2012 alongside Daniel Craig's 007 during the London Olympics spectacular opening ceremony.
'Elizabeth: A Portrait in Parts' is a well judged, nicely crafted tribute to a Monarch who has been a steady presence through good times and bad.
But it is also a reminder of what a fine director Michell was and why he is sorely missed.
('Elizabeth: A Portrait in Parts' was released in UK cinemas and on Amazon Prime on June 1, 2022)
Comments
Post a Comment