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Shekhar Kapur Talks Elizabeth: The Golden Age
By Fred Topel | Image property of Universal Pictures.
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Kapur Visits Elizabeth: The Golden Age
"I would describe all history as fiction and interpretation," said Kapur. "When I just finished this film somebody sent me a script of Mary Queen of Scots. I read it just for the interest of it, and it was a completely different interpretation of history. Elizabeth is an absolute bitch, and Mary of Scots is this great romantic novel being. Now you ask the Irish, and they have a totally different aspect of it. Ask any Catholic and they’ll give you a totally different aspect of history."
The second entry in the saga of Elizabeth I's age focuses on the queen thwarting an assassination attempt by Mary Queen of Scots and ultimately defeating the Spanish Armada at sea. Perhaps today's leaders can learn a thing or two.
"History has always been an interpretation so what makes it valid to us is to tell a contemporary story and use history as a moral story that is more relevant to our times. I do believe that civilizations that don’t learn from history are civilizations that are doomed to make the same mistakes again and again, which is why this film starts with the idea of fundamentalism against tolerance. It’s not Catholic against Protestant. It’s a very fundamental form of Catholicism. It was the time of the Spanish Inquisition and against a woman who half her population was Protestant, half was Catholic, and there were enough bigots in her Protestant Parliament to say, ‘Just kill them all.’ And she was constantly saying no. She was constantly on the side of tolerance. So you interpret history to tell the story that is relevant to us now. I used to hate history when I was kid, couldn’t handle it until somebody made it entertaining for me, so it’s my job as a filmmaker also to make it entertaining."
Admid all the intrigue, Elizabeth has her own personal problems too. She remains the virgin queen, and she has needs, people, needs! "I think just like Diana, we worship people who are in absolute power. We expect them to be divine, and in a way they realize that they should be divine. Elizabeth actually believed that all kings and all queens that they ruled by divine right. So the conflict was not between aloofness and mortality, from divinity and mortality, and so the conflict is, how can you be divine, or you could be President Clinton, but you can’t be mortal, you can’t have a little affair somewhere. Those are the aspects of absolute power. What happens when you get into absolute power, and especially at that time it was much valid in terms of the divine right of kings to rule and queens to rule, so it is can you retain any kind of mortal aspirations of having relationships and be divine at the same time? That’s the question."
That is where The Golden Age evolves from the first Elizabeth. Kapur approached it differently himself. "There is a context and a subtext to the film that you’re telling. The first film was about Elizabeth in an arena where she was fighting external forces within her court, so that’s what the film was. If you noticed the design of the film, it was filled with darkness around her in her own court. This film is a much more internal film, it’s a much more internal battle. That battle is much more about the threats that she could be killed at any time. Here it’s a far more internal battle and the threat and the darkness is not within her court. Her court is much lighter, much, much lighter, but the threat is a darkness that’s coming from outside. The threat is coming from outside, it’s coming in the form of the inquisition, it’s coming in the form of the Armada. So you approach it differently in that way."
Elizabeth: The Golden Age opens to theaters on October 12th.
For the trailer, stills and more movie info, go to the Elizabeth: The Golden Age Movie Page.
Fred Topel
Sources: Image property of Universal Pictures.
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