The Abdication

Queen Christina of Sweden (Liv Ullmann) abdicated her throne in 1654. After converting to Catholicism, she travels to Rome to prove herself to the Pope. The Pope is dying. Cardinal Azzolino (Peter Finch) is assigned to evaluate her.

Liv Ullmann is a charismatic beauty. It is a small movie despite its grand locations. I struggle to figure out Christina and her interior personal story for the first hour. This version takes her disputed sexuality to be celibacy. In this way, this is more about the power dynamics within marriages at this time and her religious conversion. It speaks to the changing power dynamics between the sexes in the 70's.

I saw this film in the Ford rubber tree plantation in Belterra close to Santarém in the Amazon in the second part of the 1970:s.

Of what I can remember, there was a lot of forced horse-riding in the film, mostly by the beautiful, womanly Liv Ullman, who didn't had the slightest resemblance with the portrayed queen Kristina. Queen Kristina was known as almost ugly with a mans body, language and habits.

Sitting there in the middle of the rain forest in a warm and humid provisional cinema, with the projector rattling amongst the onlookers, I wondered if the spectators understood anything of what they saw on the screen. A story that took place 350 years before and in a country of ice and snow.

And me - who had read about the abdication in school, how the daughter to the king who had fought the catholic church, and died in the 30 year war, became a catholic - realized that there are ten thousand different ways to tell a story and this was not the one my historian teacher had told me .... or the one I had imagined!

After Greta Garbo abdicated as Queen Christina of Sweden, she caroused through Europe for a year and finally came to Rome, where she expected to be instructed in Catholicism by the Pope. Somewhere along the way, however, she had become Liv Ullman, and now had to pass Peter Finch as Cardinal Azzolino. Is she sincere?

Peter Finch plays his role as if he's Laurence Harvey: dry, repressed, intellectual and prosecutorial, while Miss Ullman dances around him, serious and light-hearted, all over the shop emotionally. It's just the sort of movie that Anthony Harvey had directed with A LION IN WINTER. If the fireworks are not as spectacular, well, neither are the lead actors as big on the screen as Hepburn and O'Toole. This pair play guarded characters who show through in flashes, and must compete not only with their own natural beauty, but the spectacular location shots. It's a movie that requires a dedicated and attentive viewer.

I can see how it must have worked sensationally as a two-actor play by Ruth Wilson. When she opened the script slightly for the big screen, did a fine job. However the results fall slightly short of the director's earlier masterpiece. It's a fine movie, but definitely not one to watch on a small screen.

This movie was one I hadn't seen until it appeared on TCM. Great acting talents are on display with the two leading characters, Peter Finch and Liv Ullman. Queen Christina appears as a very confused woman with sexual quirks that seem to dominate her performance combined with her obsession to be seen by the Pope. Apparently she suffered from an affliction that possibly makes her better understood which some viewers were clearly aware of. I did find Peter Finch's performance more impressive, asking questions of the Queen, which she didn't expect, as if the Church would bow to her title and immediately agree to her demand. Finch, who portrays a Cardinal (a Prince of the Church) is clearly a power within the Vatican, who is determined she will not see the Pope unless he is convinced of her sincerity. He is very stoic in the presence of the Queen despite her harangues. But he is also mesmerized. The halls and chambers of the Vatican are well displayed with Cardinals huddling among themselves as the Queen and Cardinal spar over her audience with the Holy Father. There is a dramatic change towards the end which will surprise some viewers. This is a very impressive take on Vatican politics at the time of the Counter-Reformation.

I'm really not a Liv Ullmann fan, but I was really curious to see The Abdication because of the premise. Made the year after Lost Horizon, she teamed up again with her costar Peter Finch and had scorching chemistry. It was a surprising film, and thought provoking, so if you're interested in religious dramas, you'll want to check it out.

Peter plays a priest, and before you think he has way too much emotion, sex appeal, and bad boy vibes to be convincing, just wait. Liv plays Queen Christina, rebellious, independent, and unpredictable. She abdicates her throne and travels to Rome to study and convert to Catholicism. Because of her wild streak, the Church doesn't take her seriously. They think she's just trying it out as one of her whims, and Peter is tasked with finding out if she is in earnest. Is it really that good of an idea to send a good-looking, passionate priest to a promiscuous, passionate woman? Probably not. The sparks fly, and we start to wonder who is converting and who is abdicating. Even though I don't usually like her, I'd definitely recommend this one.