Elizabeth II is not a stony cold queen when it comes to enjoying horse racing.
Whether the animal she has bet on wins or loses, she gesticulates from the stands, almost with the passion of a
Manchester United
hooligan .
In one of the archive images of the documentary
Elizabeth: A Portrait in Part (s)
—Which in Spanish means Isabel: a portrait in part (s)—, the British monarch is seen receiving the profits obtained after the victory of the horse her.
It's just a few pounds.
She receives them with a gesture of satisfaction, very similar to that of any other mother or grandmother, with the difference that, as can be seen in the image, the bills and coins that are handed to her bear her own face .
The film by Roger Michell, the director of
Notting Hill
who died last September, is not a solemn review of his 70-year reign, nor is it an attempt to humanize his figure from fiction, like the series
The Crown
.
With a skilful montage and large doses of humor, it combines truthful tribute with friendly criticism.
“The process to request the use of images to the real archives is very long.
We decided to be honest.
We explained to them that we were not going to make a typical documentary.
We told them that it wasn't going to be chronological, there weren't going to be experts commenting, or voiceovers... but we did want to be a bit naughty, make a joke and have a good time.
They accepted and when we finished production, we showed them what we had done.
They told us that they thought it was fine, ”Kevin Loader (Bournemouth, United Kingdom, 66 years old) tells this Sunday from London in a telematic conversation.
He is the producer of the documentary, which is being screened these days at the Swiss Visions du Réel festival.
Elizabeth: A Portrait in Part(s)
is scheduled for a worldwide release sometime in 2022.
To avoid typical stock footage, the film's team launched an online petition last year for people to send recordings of their home cameras or mobile phones to the queen if they've ever come across she.
“We received a lot of material but unfortunately we couldn't use almost anything.
Ordinary people do not usually have close access to it and almost all the images were far away, with many elements that were in the way, ”she explains.
Where they did find very unusual material was in German archives, which had recorded Elizabeth II's visit to different cities in the country in the 1960s, says the producer.
The resulting
collage
takes advantage of repetition to generate comic effect.
Collect hundreds of images of the queen throughout all these years practicing that characteristic wrist movement with which monarchies greet her people.
Or shaking hands with other famous faces, including a fortnight of British prime ministers she has
outlived
.
Or pushing buttons, over and over again, on her many visits to factories around the country.
As if it were a doll that runs on batteries.
There are also tons of irony at the expense of the culture of fame and the nervous laughter of ordinary citizens, typical of a folder
fan
, when Elizabeth II shares living space with them.
Is she a respected queen or just the most eligible celebrity on the planet?
their
outfits
they have inspired those of Audrey Hepburn and, in her youth, she had to dazzle in her nocturnal public appearances as much as Liz Taylor or Marilyn Monroe.
Her face has been reproduced more, on posters, plates, cups, than that of the Mona Lisa.
“Like Da Vinci's painting, she is a well-known woman, but in reality little known.
So we wanted to analyze that component of mystery, especially everything that the new generations do not know about it;
that humble, unassuming, common part that she has too,” admits Loader.
But, in this clever and dynamic personal album, there is also time for seriousness.
She is listed as the longest-living monarch in history.
And like the figure – just 1.52 centimeters tall – around which the Commonwealth has been consolidated.
She is the woman who bears such a heavy crown that, as she is heard saying at one point in the documentary, between literalness and metaphor, she can break your neck at the slightest false move.
The Prince of Edinburgh and Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace in 1958. Donald McKague (Getty)
Roger Michell uses Elizabeth II's own words to legitimize the most acidic moments that he includes in his latest work.
“There is no doubt, of course, that criticism is good for the people and institutions that are part of public life.
No institution — city, monarchy, whatever — should expect to be free from the scrutiny of those who give it their loyalty and support, much less those who don't," he said in his 40th anniversary speech, reacting to the considered
annus horribilis.
Because the documentary also deals with the many
horribilis moments
of his long stay on the throne.
And they are not only limited to that year 1992, nor to Sarah Ferguson, Lady Di or Meghan Markle.
They also remember some street protests.
Editor Joanna Crickmay's montage, which ran for more than a year, intersperses these negative memories with images of the 1992 Windsor Castle fire that threatened her art treasure.
It does not include the recent out-of-court settlement that closes the sex scandal in which Prince Andrew is involved because those responsible for this review did not want to focus too much on their children's problems, "except to remember that she is also a mother," she says. its producer.
They only make a quick mention of the controversial interview that the Duke of York gave in 2019 to the BBC
Newsnight program
, in which he refused to regret his friendship with Jeffrey Eipstein, even though he had already pleaded guilty to child sex trafficking.
Michell himself left a few written words about the project before he died: “You don't have to be a monarchist to have the Queen in your head.
Everything around her swirls like a tropical typhoon.
Everything changes around her except her.
Isabel.
[This film is] a celebration;
a cinematic journey through the decades: poetic, funny, disobedient, unruly, affectionate, inappropriate, mischievous, in a permanent state of wonder.
Funny.
Emotional.
Different.
The Queen as she has never been seen before.”
