Elizabeth, the acclaimed British period drama starring Cate Blanchett and Joseph Fiennes, is on TV tonight.
The 1998 film, written by Michael Hirst and directed by Shekhar Kapur, takes place in the early years of Elizabeth I’s (Blanchett) reign as the Queen of England, with the royal facing several plots to her crown.
Boasting a stacked supporting cast including Geoffrey Rush, Christopher Eccleston and Daniel Craig, the period drama is scheduled to air at 9pm on Film4 tonight, so genre fans won’t want to miss this one.
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Upon its release, Elizabeth was widely acclaimed by critics and industry figures, garnering seven Academy Award nominations – including Best Picture and Best Actress – as well as five BAFTA awards from 12 nominations.
Its approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes currently stands at an impressive 84% from 67 reviews, while the audience score is marginally higher at 86% from over 50,000 ratings. Its user rating on IMDb isn’t quite as good, though 7.4 out of 10 from 109,000 logs is still solid.
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“No mere historical drama, Elizabeth is a rich, suspenseful journey into the heart of British Royal politics, and features a typically outstanding performance from Cate Blanchett,” reads the critical consensus on Rotten Tomatoes.
“Kapur cunningly confuses gender roles, equates sex with death, and rattles through dark, stony passions with some considerable panache,” wrote Time Out, while Empire Magazine called it a “powerful, arty production”.
The BBC was also positive, writing: “Kapur draws the best from an outstanding cast and delivers both an atmospheric romance and a mature exploration of a big theme – the dark duplicity, betrayal, and grubby ambition that runs through Britain’s bloodthirsty history.”
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Blanchett would reprise her role as the monarch nearly a decade later for 2007’s Elizabeth: The Golden Age, which focused on the latter part of her reign. Kapur returned to direct, while the actor gained another Academy Award nomination for her performance.
In more recent times, Blanchett garnered acclaim for her role in Black Bag, a spy thriller which follows MI6 agent George Woodhouse (Michael Fassbender) as he suspects that his wife, Kathryn (Blanchett), may have betrayed the country.
Elizabeth airs at 9pm on Film4 tonight.
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Reporter, Digital Spy George is a freelance writer who specialises in Movies and TV. After graduating with a degree in Film Studies and Journalism from De Montfort University, in which he analysed the early works of Richard Linklater for his dissertation, he wrote for several websites for GRV Media. Â His film tastes vary from blockbusters like Mission: Impossible and John Wick to international directors such as Paolo Sorrentino and Hirokazu Kore-eda, and has attended both the London and Berlin film festivals.
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