A Royal Affair (Nikolaj Arcel, 2012): Denmark

Reviewed by Grace Williamson. Screened at the Arlington, Santa Barbara.

I had attempted to see this film on the 30th of January, but to my luck it was canceled, or so I thought.  By chance I had found that there was an additional showing the second to last night of the festival.  The rows in the Arlington leave the majority of the crowd on the same plane, which has little problems with live performances but for a fast paced subtitled film it failed.  I had sat with an open seat in front of me because I would hate to be that person moving around in my seat for the duration of the film, but ten minutes into the film a tall lady decided to move directly in front of me.  The first half hour of the film was almost illegible due to some technical problem casting a dark shadow on half of the screen.  After that fiasco the film seemed to carry on in a merry manor.

This film is based on a book about the an English woman marrying the King of Denmark, and being terribly unhappy until she has her own “Royal Affair.”  This film focuses on the ongoing battle with Religion versus Enlightenment, the new queen comes from a place where liberal thinking is encouraged and reading is her favorite past time.  Little did she know she would be bound to a country where her favorite books were censored and banned.

The King of Denmark is simply considered a joke and nothing more, he is not taken seriously and is forced to sign things without any explanation throughout the film.  He goes to many plays and interrupts the performance to say the lines, with no better reason besides as king, he can.  He was fond of his new wife when they met until his evil step mother decided to tell him that she was more talented than him, and in that first night he decided to despise her.  A doctor is hired to keep him in line, and he also takes on the role of keeping the queen in line.

Through both the doctor and the queen liberal ideas are being passed down into the court to make new laws and decisions, but nothing ever stays golden in stories with corruption like this.  Religion is used to evoke fear into many of the characters in this film, but there is very little logic in the way in which it was done.  The step mother explains that if the maids do not tell her the truth it is a mortal sin and they will go to hell, but they are not allowed to tell anyone of this.

For a two and half hour film, A Royal Affair keeps its grasp on the viewers attention, through laughter, and heartbreak, anticipation, and tears, this is a film to watch again and again.  This was loosely based on actual historical events and the acting was very realistic.  I think this film like Nikolaj Arcel’s others will be a hit for the English speaking public as well as the Danish.

I did find out that when this film was supposed to take place, German was the language of Denmark not Danish.