Victoria & Albert
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DVD details
Actor: Diana Rigg, James Callis, Jonathan Firth, Patrick Malahide, Victoria HamiltonBrand: A and E Home Video
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; Spanish (Published)
Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 200 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-10-30
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: A&E Home Video
DVD Reviews of Victoria & Albert
DVD Review: An Abundance of Inaccuracies
Summary: 2 Stars
For the past eight years I've been working on a project on the Romanovs. A sizeable part of my research also included their British relations, particularly Queen Victoria and her daughters.
This BBC movie as entertaining as it was was probably more damaging for the uninformed than informative. On a superficial level, Queen Victoria was never considered a beauty or even attractive in her own time, even when she was young. Although she did have a narrow waistline. So picking such an attractive actress to portray her was probably as bad as when Catherine Zeta-Jones (one of the leading Hollywood beauties) was picked to portray another monarch, Catherine the great of Russia, who was notorious for her plain looks. Albert, I should admit looked more like the real thing.
I can't tell you how vivacious and energetic the real Victoria was, since the actress in the movie was quite lively, but she could have never been so indiscreet in public as to kiss her husband and even show affection publicly. She gave great importance to decorum and would have never screamed in the hallways when others could hear her.
In the movie she also appeared to be almost a modern mother who let her children enjoy their lives. Nothing could be further than the truth. She certainly loved her children but she was very tyrannical towards them. At the table her children sat very quietly and minded their own business. She made her daughters' later lives especially miserable. Therefore, they were all much closer to their loving father that to their mother. Also from the very beginning Albert took control of the palace affairs, more or less like our Prince Phillip. It's rather unfortunate that the only scene that showed her at a theatre was attending a comedy play. She did watch comedies, but she had a rather low opinion of them and would not have burst into laughter like that in public. In many ways she was a boring person. And her last sentence in the movie which says that she would move on with life because Albert would have wanted her to, is also rather inaccurate. All of us know, that after his death she withdrew from public and her duties for years, until people finally convinced her that it was doing so much damage to the family's image that she finally gave in. Although she never took off her mourning black dress, wearing it even at her children's weddings. An entire ultra-conservative era was not named after Queen Victoria for no reason, and not just because she lived in that period but that she was the personification of the mentality of the time, somewhat of a U-turn from the 18th century Enlightenment. I think this movie was made to change the popular image of Queen Victoria as a strict, dogmatic and inflexible woman (which is definitely more accurate), though, I admit, she had a kind heart. And perhaps to boost the current queen's image too, who is also believed to be dry and dogmatic. But in her case I think it's rather unfair.
Description of Victoria & Albert
The world remembers Queen Victoria as a staid and stately dowager in black, but Victoria and Albert shows the other side of the monarch who gave her name to an era - the emotional young queen whose reign was shaped by her passionate love for her German-born husband, Prince Albert. Disc One:
Kept isolated form the court by her domineering mother, Victoria seems unprepared for the throne when King William IV (Sir Peter Ustinov) dies. But the teenage queen shows surprising strength and resolve, and puts her full faith in the political counsel of Lord Melbourne, the Prime Minister. With the help of Belgium's King Leopold, a meeting is arranged between Victoria and her cousin, Prince Albert of Germany. Though initially reluctant, she falls utterly in love when she sees him, and they are married after a brief courtship.
Disc Two:
The changing political fortunes of Lord Melbourne finally afford Albert the opportunity to become involved in the affairs of state - a role Victoria had previously resisted. Soon, his wise counsel leads the Queen to call him "king in everything but name." But their joint rule would not last long, as Albert's tireless work on the Great Exhibition of 1851 comes at the cost of his health. He never fully recovers, eventually succumbing to typhoid fever in 1862, leaving Victoria to rule alone for nearly 40 years.
Recasting history as a particularly lavish soap opera, Victoria and Albert sets the story of the relationship between the queen and her consort against a background of family strife and political wrangling. Sticklers for accuracy might be disappointed, but the strong cast and lavish production values make for an entertaining film.
Victoria is barely 18 when her uncle King William IV dies. She is introduced by the family adviser to a young German prince called Albert, and in spite of their initial indifference to one another and a great deal of political opposition, they fall in love. Marriage brings its own problems, however, and as Victoria, grows from an inexperienced young woman into a shrewd and powerful monarch Albert struggles to find a role for himself in both the family and the nation.
The relationship between Victoria and Albert was a remarkable one and this film, while occasionally erring on the side of sentiment, brings that relationship to life. The young leads are charming, but it is the supporting cast of British acting stalwarts--including Nigel Hawthorne, David Suchet, and Diana Rigg--who make Victoria and Albert truly worth watching. --Simon Leake
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