Royal Affair

"A Royal Affair" is a Danish/Swedish/Czech production about the reign of 18th century King Christian VII of Denmark, his Welsh wife and a German physician whose progressive ideas shake Denmark's conservative ruling class to its foundations. As best I can discern the film tries to keep true to actual history with some embellishments added concerning the role of the Queen in the political machinations along with some reasonable speculation about a possible menage a trois. The screenplay by Nikolaj Arcel and Rasmus Heisterberg does a nice job of capturing the unusual atmosphere of life at a court governed by a mentally unstable monarch who's little more than a nuisance puppet of the nobility and the church. In the middle of all that is the young English Queen trapped in a loveless marriage. She is also disturbed by the unwillingness of her adopted country to accept the ideas of the Enlightenment then circulating around Europe. Under the direction of Nikolaj Arcel "A Royal Affair" is an effective recreation of a bygone age yet one in which we can see our contemporary quagmire between those who advocate change and those condemning it. Mikkel Folsgaard is excellent as the King. He never descends to caricature and is both powerful and pitiable. Mads Mikkelsen is compelling as Dr. Johann Struensee a noble but flawed man given a rare opportunity to improve the lot of the lower classes who are suspicious of him as a foreigner usurping the state. Alicia Vikander is Caroline Mathilde a Welsh princess sent to Denmark in an arranged marriage of noble households with no idea of what's in store for her. This is very good intelligent costume drama that should please fans of the genre. Well worth seeing.

Love can lead to transformation yet the force of greed and the lack of political skills can bring anyone down even though you have the best intentions and act for the "greater good".

It does not happen very often that I come out of the cinema and completely shut up. It didn't feel like I was listening to a non-English dialogue. Danish felt like a familiar language ... and it was beautiful in this movie.

Though not with splendid clothes like Marie Antoinette, no intense intrigues, no large battle scenes, it was one of the best historic films I have ever seen. Everything was kept "small", yet with so much feeling that I could not take sides with any of the 3 main characters. Fair enough, the greedy and backward upper-class angered me much; just can't stand stupidity, especially when it holds back progress and the aim for improvements.

I saw this last night and its been on my mind a lot since then..

What a fantastic movie!!, i went in with high expectations, as i had only read very positive things about it, and I was definitely not disappointed, what a beautiful, sad and touching story Great acting overall, mads Mikkelsen is always good, and this is one of his best roles in my opinion, Alicia wikander was beautiful as the young queen, but the real star of this movie has to be Mikkel Boe Følsgaard as Christian VII, Wow!!, what a great actor, his portrayal of the mentally ill king was superb, he really made me sympathize with Christian, he may have been of his nutter and mean at times, but deep down, I think he was a good guy, but he was a very insecure young man, who didn't know how to behave properly, and who couldn't deal with the obligation of being king, he was misunderstood, and I felt really bad for him at times, I really like the portrayal of the relationship between the King and struensee, they were really very good friends/companions, and struensee was like a father to Christian.

The costumes were also beautiful, I love fashion in that period, and this movie had some beautiful clothes to dwell on.

It was about time my country did a movie on our royal history, and now they have, and the outcome is better then i could have ever expected, just beautiful, Hollywood couldn't have done it better, as a Dane I take pride in our danish (royal)history.

Go and see it!!, you wont be sorry

This was a magnificent film, with stunning performances by the star cast and the supporting roles.

I am not an unconditional fan of Mads Mikkelsen, but he really was strong and convincing in this role.

And one could easily forgive the good doctor for falling in love with Queen Caroline, as portrayed by the lovely Alicia Vikander.

And one even had sympathy for poor old Christian in the end. I was beginning to wonder whether he was quite as insane as people thought him to be. There seemed to be a genuine friendship between him and Dr Struensee also. Had things gone slightly differently, one could have imagined them forming a happy and successful ménage à trois, and living happily ever after.

And the villains were truly villainous :-)

(I spotted a few familiar faces from Forbydelsen I and other places, including Søren Malling (Jan Mayer ), and Bent Mejding who was the standing mayor (playing a not dissimilar sort of character)

A very interesting and surprising historical lesson as well.

Highly recommended.

You could dismiss this film as a Danish history lesson but it is more than that. It is a love story with an improbable background in a rather gloomy setting, the Danish Court of the late 18th century. Mad (or at least seriously disturbed) King Christian VII (Mikkel Folsgaard - superbe) marries 16 year old English princess Caroline (Alicia Vikander) who happens to be George III's sister). He prefers the company of his dog and mistress to her. It is not surprising that Caroline falls for Johann Struensee (Mads Mikkelsen) who becomes the king's personal physician on the strength of his knowledge of Shakespeare (especially Hamlet). The king is, as they say, easily led, and for a year or so Sturensee, despite being German, has a fine time as de facto ruler enacting liberal measures such as the abolition of serfdom and the repeal of censorship laws, not to mention free smallpox inoculations. But the forces of reaction led by the king's stepmother gather. It was surprising to learn that 18th century Denmark was such a backward society.

Mads Mikkelsen gives a nuanced performance – 'quiet intensity' in fact, and Alicia Vikander is equally intense. They are a serious couple imbued with the ideals of the 18th century Enlightenment but their passion is physical as well as intellectual. Unfortunately their ideals are a little advanced for Denmark of the 1770s despite support from writers such as Voltaire. The local book-burners led by Hoegh-Guldberg (David Dencik) are not swayed by argument of course.

The production is full of atmosphere. The castles are suitably gloomy and there's plenty of medieval squalor beyond the castle gate. Much of the action takes place in winter which adds to the chilly atmosphere. The aristocracy are suitably heartless and the peasants downtrodden. The king provides some zany (if not quite authentic) moments, appointing his Great Dane to his council and ordering Struensee to make Caroline a "fun queen".

This is quite a long movie at 140 minutes yet is enthralling from start to finish. Even though you can guess the ending you are swept along by the story and the performances. You can see why the audiences at Cannes loved it.