Queen Christina

Period dramas made in the past often fall foul of reflecting the time which they were made in, not when they were set. This one however is timeless and ageless evoking a feel of the seventeenth century whilst still being very much a grand MGM epic from the golden age of Hollywood. It's beautifully and imaginatively crafted by maestro director Rouben Mamoulian to perfection and acted with complete believability and passion evoking some very real emotion.

It is set during the truly horrific (and complicated) Thirty Years War and begins with the death of the Protestant leader, Swedish king, Gustav Adolf. He leaves behind his seven year old daughter to take over as 'king' to continue leading Sweden in the terrible war. Greta Garbo's particular acting style and strong Swedish accent which can sometimes feel a little too theatrical at times is for once absolutely perfectly suited to playing this person who in reality had to be the greatest actress in Sweden. The role Christina had to play was to convince her subjects that their suffering, their sacrifices were God's will and unquestionably necessary. Her act was to instil such hatred of the enemy, such detestation of Catholicism that the mass slaughter of literally millions of people could be justified but it was all just an act. Although this state of perpetual war was all she had ever known, Christina herself could not convince herself that this was indeed God's will and Garbo brilliantly with incredible subtlety conveys this inner mental turmoil. Her other role was produce an heir and that is what this film uses as its hook to get into her mind.

Greta Garbo was personally involved with the making of this film, it was her own pet project and she insisted that her co-star would be her old flame, John Gilbert. He too is excellent as Christina's Spanish love interest. Fuelled with the memories of their past passionate affair, the chemistry between the two of them seems very real and is genuinely touching. Before you start to complain that the love story between Christina and Alfonso is completely made up you should know that the writer used this very clever device to symbolise her inner struggles, the epic battles going on inside her head between her feelings as a compassionate and sensitive, intelligent woman and her feelings as a king. John Gilbert's allegorical character represents Christina's aspirations, her desire for independence and her desire for freedom which she knows can never be. The famous tragic last scene (which is honestly quite emotional) is inevitable.

The story is tragically sad and so is the story of poor John Gilbert. His ill-advised monumental fall out with Louis Mayer, the most powerful man in Hollywood completely destroyed his career resulting in his death from alcoholism just three years after making this. Such tragedies seemed to be all too common back in the days of the 'studio system' with stars such as John Gilbert, John Barrymore and Clara Bow. A guy driving a truck driver or girl from the typing pool were virtually overnight given a new life, earning literally millions of dollars and then maybe a year later, at the whim of a studio head were unemployed, that life was over. In some ways John Gilbert's character in this film which can logically only have one ending reflects the actor's own trajectory.