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QUEEN ELIZABETH
ллл
France
If the Academy had been around in its day,
you could safely bet on this theatrical pseudo-biopic sweeping the Oscars. It
stinks of prestige. It
also just stinks in general. It's a series of static, interminable,
single-take tableaux based around the Queen's romantic involvement with
the Earl of Essex and each intertitle summarises the scene that is to
follow. Of course, it's also of great historical interest since it made a
lot of people finally accept cinema as an artistic medium and it's also
one of the rare records of Ms. Bernhardt on film. She's never granted a
close-up, and you do have to keep straining your eyes to figure out what
was so divine about the chubby woman on screen that keeps flailing her
arms in slow motion. In this sense, the film is rather compelling.
dir: Henri Desfontaines, Louis Mercanton
cast: Sarah Bernhardt, Lou Tellegen, Max Maxudian, Jean
Angelo
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