A LETTERED SOUL: REFLECTIONS ON LITERATURE, CINEMA AND CULTURE .

OF QUEENS IN MIGHT AND HUMBLER EMOTIONAL CROSSROADS

MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS(2018)

It's befuddling how when societal progress makes us take a hundred steps forward, a single conventional trail of thought threatens to throw us back to the dark ages in an instant. It can happen within a moment or a considerable point of time. Therein lies the incalculable dichotomy of being humans in the first place. So such a fact of life is bound to be historically searing and I found that to be exhibited rather well in MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS (2018)

Here is a mighty tale that involves two queens claiming their rightful share, owning their intelligence and agency in a world where the only administrative apparatus around them is populated by power hungry men. The smell of conspiracy as regards expansion of empire and acquisition is pungent. So while the conventional model of society is rampant, the gender constructs have  already been broken asunder by their definitive presence on the throne. They call out their advisors' recommendations coloured by their dog eared ideals and have the inborn authority to make their decisions. They also express the inevitability of this skewed gender ratio working to divide two women. So Mary's beauty, youth is served as a counterpoint to Elizabeth's middle aged monarch whose physicality has been literally scarred by a bout with measles. Mary's ambition, too, is pitched against the veteran Queen's experience.

Director Josie Rourke, a theatre virtuoso,  gives it a very contemporary pulse then by stripping it of verbose arguments, making the timelessness of the issue central to the telling. This brewing cauldron of orchestrated sibling rivalry almost reminded me of how the distasteful feud between screen legends BETTE DAVIS and JOAN CRAWFORD was mostly pushed as an agenda by the studio machinery for decades. That creation of an intragender divide still rules our world as we know it and this is where the politics of its currency sparks this script to life.

This screen adaptation of the titular legend is given its power by Saoirse Ronan's fiery commitment throughout tempered by an older Queen Elizabeth's vulnerability in her later years, a kind of  resignation that comes with the passage of time and advancing years irrespective of gender, when greater wisdom makes even the most legendary figure understand the futility of bloodshed orchestrated by male egos. Margot Robbie totally embodies those emotions.  I'm only going by what's put up on screen based as it is on a historian/writer's scholarship regarding the epoch through the years. That dual interplay is a welcome embodiment of the parallels that united both cousins even if they never met in real life. On that note, the reversal of this fact makes way for the highlight of this screenplay where both meet in a modest cottage camouflaged by curtains and a tense and yet empathetic exchange of words reveals their innate humanity for better or worse. Also intensely mounted is the dehumanization of one of Mary's beloved courtiers who is given an ultimate death blow owing to his sexuality and the politics of hate around it.

With all the misogyny around them and the mutual feelings of courage and fortitude to guide them, both are given a beautifully layered treatment by the two young actors. MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS hence becomes a cautionary tale and a dirge to the countless narratives of women becoming each other's worst enemies, by dint of the world around them and not their own volition per se.

Also I love the fact that Elizabeth was the original feminist firebrand, choosing to not marry or have a child owing to her own choice and not just entertaining some grand illusion of becoming a veritable VIRGIN QUEEN for her empire.