The Abdication (1974)
Director: Anthony Harvey
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Cold Scandinavian obsession drives Queen Christina to relinquish her throne, convert to Catholicism and seek the warmer climate of Rome, where she pours out her heart to Cardinal Peter Finch ('It seems strange to call somebody father'). As an exploration of private spaces in the lives of public people (who, through circumstance or choice, are committed to celibacy), psychological insight is too often sacrificed for the sake of verbal swordplay. It ends up skirting perilously close to superior cliché ('Are we not the world's strangest couple?'). At least Garbo, playing the same role in Mamoulian's Queen Christina, conspired with her audience against the rest of the film. One wishes for something like that here: it all seems so remote.Author:
User reviews of this film
-
- Lister said...
-
Posted on Feb 22 2009 19:09
Nice to meet you all guys and hoping to learn more from this guestbook.
I am from Qatar and know bad English, please tell me right I wrote the following sentence: "When words fall short, send love kisses to your true love and make him her feel special."
Best regards ;-), Lister. - Report as inappropriate
-
- don kelly said...
- Posted on Jan 05 2009 17:17 where can I purchase this movie? Michael Dunn is my cousin
- Report as inappropriate
Cast & crew
Director: Anthony Harvey
Producer: Robert Fryer, James Cresson
Cast: Peter Finch, Liv Ullmann, Cyril Cusack, Paul Rogers, Graham Crowden, Michael Dunn, Kathleen Byron full cast
Duration: 103 mins
Most popular on this site
Features
To the letter
Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.
Mind over matter
David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.
Fool's gold
Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.
We are the championed
Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."
A history of violence
Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.
True romantic
James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.
Playing in the dark
MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.
Junk bonds
Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.



What do you think?
Post your review now