Key Elizabethan Films

Anne Marie Duff - The Virgin Queen
She commented: I wanted to be a women of her various ages and have integrity within it, not be doing an impression of something...I knew that with the makeup and costume I would look good - the  prosthetics not only looked amazing but they gave my face restrictions that it wouldn't normally have - and we worked on obvious things like vocal differences and the physicality... What I wanted to do was to try and find an old brittle bones approach... I hope I've achieved that. I kept thinking in my head, 'why on earth have they cast one actress, not two?' but I just went for it and I hope that it works.

Elizabeth
 (1999)  Cate Blanchard as Elizabeth (winner of a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a  Drama), along with Geoffrey Rush, Richard Attenborough and John Gielgud lead a  remarkable cast in a thriller of intrigue in the court of one of history's greatest  monarchs, Elizabeth I, set in  England, 1554.  Young, passionate Elizabeth Tudor comes  to the throne amidst bloody turmoil.  Among her courtiers are the venerable Sir William  Cecil, her lover the Earl of Leicester, the imperious Duke of Norfolk and her advisor  Walsingham.  She must learn to weigh her counsel carefully if she is to keep her crown- -and her head.  This film covers only the first few tumultuous years of her reign.




The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex is the story of Queen Elizabeth I (Bette Davis) and the Earl of Essex as told by Hollywood: it ends badly for him. Bette was brilliant and Errol Flynn wandered around aimlessly looking for a swash to buckle.

Elizabeth R - Glenda Jackson
When Elizabeth Tudor comes to the throne, her (male) advisers know she has to marry. Doesn't she? Thus starts a decades-long political/ matrimonial game, during an age of high passions and high achievement.


Helen Mirren - Elizabeth I 

Elizabeth I is a two-part 2005 British historical drama television miniseries directed by Tom Hooper, written by Nigel Williams, and starring Helen Mirren as Elizabeth I of England. The miniseries covers approximately the last 24 years of her nearly 45-year reign. Part 1 focuses on the final years of her relationship with the Earl of Leicester, played by Jeremy Irons. Part 2 focuses on her subsequent relationship with the Earl of Essex, played by Hugh Dancy.


Judi Dench - Shakespeare in love
Many other plot devices used in the film are common in Shakespearean comedies and other plays of the Elizabethan era: the Queen disguised as a commoner, the cross-dressing disguises, mistaken identities, the sword fight, the suspicion of adultery, the appearance of a "ghost" (cf. Macbeth), and the "play within a play". According to Douglas Brode, the film deftly portrays many of these devices as though the events depicted were the inspiration for Shakespeare's own use of them in his plays.