Film
Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more
- Home
- Box Office
- Listings
- Trailers
- Features
Bookmark this page- Edition:
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:
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
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.
What do you think?
Post your review now