Film

Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more

 

The Abdication (1974)

Director: Anthony Harvey

Average user rating
No reviews

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.

  • Print this page
  • Send to a friend

What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields





Features

Golden boy

Golden boy

Atonement signals a(nother) bold step for British dynamo Joe Wright.

A lion in winter

Frank Langella hits the sweet spot in Starting Out in the Evening.

Dog day evening

Back with a taut new crime film, Sidney Lumet has plenty more to give.

Kiss of death

Goran Dukic proves that romance never dies in Wristcutters: A Love Story.

Monster in law

Jacques Vergès, infamous defender of Nazis and bombers, takes the stand in Terror’s Advocate.

Optic nerve

The eyes have it in “Views from the Avant-Garde.”

King of New York

TONY finds much to crow about at the 45th New York Film Festival.