Jackson Booth-Millard The actress who starred in Camille and Ninotchka only acted in twenty eight films and retired at the age of thirty five, and this is one of her most quintessential and famous roles, from director Rouben Mamoulian (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde). Basically, set in the 17th Century, in Sweden in the year 1632 during the Thirty Years' War six year old Christina ascends the throne, and growing into an adult Christina (Greta Garbo) often dresses as a man for a more authoritarian appearance, and has a love for literature and the arts. Massive casualties on both sides of the war are happening as it rages on, and despite the Swedish side seemingly winning, the Queen would rather have peace, and at the same time her loyal subjects have her love life on their minds and know that there should be an heir to ensure longevity of the nation. Christina is believed and seemingly assured that she will marry the hero of the battles in the war Prince Charles Gustavus (Reginald Owen), but the Lord Treasurer Count Magnus (Ian Keith) makes the mistake in the believing he can have the queen, but she is not pursuing love to pay attention to fighting the war. But she changes her mind the visiting Spanish envoy Antonio (John Gilbert) who works for King Philip of Spain, they meet in a snowbound inn, and with their forced time together they fall in love, but he has no idea who she is. When he does find out they have to decide if their relationship can work within the constraints of their duties, and the troubles for him and Christina increase when Count Magnus, who wants the Queen for himself, gets the public on his side to uprise against her love interest in the name of patriotism. Also starring Lewis Stone as Chancellor Oxenstierna, Elizabeth Young as Ebba Sparre, C. Aubrey Smith as Aage, Georges Renavent as French Ambassador, Gustav Von Seyffertitz as General and David Torrence as Archbishop. I will be honest and say that I drifted in a few moments, especially with all the political stuff, and I agree with the critics it is a bit of a slow pace throughout, but the love story going on is interesting, Garbo is of course the biggest reason to see this film, to see her looking beautiful and being all noble and dignified, overall it still a worthwhile historical romantic drama. Very good!

Armand One of movies behind any definition. Like a unique picture. As a lake in winter. History and love story and presence of Garbo. An extraordinary director and memorable scenes. And the feeling than this tale , who may be about Elizabeth the I or Boudicca has not end. It is a huge exercise of perfection and beauty in each moment. A kind of spell and form of sculpture. So, it is not movie of a time. And it is not example of artistic precise art. But it is memory. Recollection. Subject of nostalgic moment and bone of a way to give the essence of a subject. This film is Garbo. And more. The details constructs a world strange and dramatic but like sculptural roots. A extraordinary show. A wonderful queen. And one of greatest movies.

Steffi_P Refugees from the silent screen – they were a mixed bunch. Greta Garbo, sublimely beautiful and supremely confident, her Swedish accent and husky delivery complementing the mysterious persona she had cultivated in the silents, was a natural survivor. John Gilbert, fulfilling a very 1920s ideal of handsomeness, with a voice like a squeezebox in high register, was not faring so well. Still, the kind-hearted Garbo had lobbied for her old friend and silent-era co-star to make an appearance opposite her in Queen Christina, thus providing us with a final chance to see them together, even now their careers had long since diverged.Queen Christina is part of an early-30s wave of historical pictures set in Eastern Europe. When it came to "pre-code" raunchiness the more upmarket studios like MGM and Paramount eschewed the jails and dancehalls of Warner Brothers in favour of frisky period dramas. This picture deals brazenly with the queen's supposed promiscuity as well as hinting at her rumoured bisexuality. In spite of the regal gloss it's actually a rather silly business. At one point we see Garbo casually firing a musket ball into the ceiling to break up a quarrel over how many lovers she's had. Eventually, and against all odds, a trite yet rather touching love story emerges. This gives the story a bit of direction, although perhaps it would have been better had it allowed to simply wander into the truly bizarre (cf. The Scarelt Empress). As one might expect, historical accuracy is only an occasional visitor to the screenplay, but that's hardly the point is it? The director is Hollywood's resident technique geek Rouben Mamoulian. Mamoulian's extrovert style is just about starting to come together, and yet he still shows a penchant for all things showy. Here he continually bookends his scenes with lengthy and largely superfluous tracking shots, which might be OK if they weren't so wobbly. He's also a lover of theatrical and stylised crowd movements, such as the synchronised manner in which the group of peasants turn their heads to one another after Garbo puts a question to them. Such things are great for musicals, but look silly in dramas. Mamoulian's greatest strength here is really is his eye for the iconic, with such fine compositions as the shot of Garbo and Gilbert's first kiss before the fire.Still, Garbo was an actor who always seemed impervious to bad or indifferent direction. When acting queenly, she shows her usual steely immobility, the occasional flash of an eyebrow adding emphasis. Here and there she is mocking, almost playful, and you feel through her that there was a good atmosphere on the set for this one. And yes, her rapport with Gilbert is alive and well. The washed-up actor still has those deep, deep, silent movie peepers, and his voice doesn't sound quite so froggy as it did with the poor recording of his first few talkies (although there is one bizarre moment later in the movie where he gets in a sleigh, and it sounds like he just sat on a duck). It's a pity this was his penultimate screen appearance, as it's possibly his best. Had he been able to hold on a few more years he could have even made a slightly aged Errol Flynn type. Other players to look out for in Queen Christina are the ever-watchable C. Aubrey Smith and a pre-fame Akim Tamiroff as Pedro, seen weeping with palpable emotion in the final scene.All in all, while not a great talkie, Queen Christina is at least a good reminder of the silent screen's glories. The dialogue is not conspicuously bad, and is even rather nifty in places, but it is of little consequence, never driving things forward. Ultimately it is upon the haunting faces of Garbo and Gilbert that the drama is played out.

zwrite2 I spent 100 minutes trying to decide how much to penalize "Queen Christina" because a key part of the plot was ludicrous. That's how long it took me to watch this movie again.Thanks to the mistaken identity scenes, I considered giving "Christina" a thumbs-down, but ultimately rated it highly because it is a cinematic masterpiece aside from the aforementioned problem.Frankly, I was astounded that a movie this mature was produced in 1933. The dialogue is at a very high intellectual level with the characters debating topics like war and culture and challenging the conventional mores of 17th century Sweden.The dialogue fits seamlessly into the plot. In contrast, the writers of "Hamlet" and "The Lion In Winter" seem to be consciously creating memorable lines that often don't match the characters. The direction is also well thought-out. There are scenes where not one word is uttered, but Greta Garbo conveys the importance of something that just occurred via her expressions and actions.And "Christina" deserves enormous credit for boldly including topics that I thought were not permitted on the screen in the early 1930s. There is blatant lesbianism, a half-dressed hooker, talk about a queen being a slut, sex between virtual strangers, and a shot at religion.More importantly, I was very interested in the movie's primary character from start to finish. Christina was strong as a 6-year-old and as a woman with a powerful will who wanted to live her own life and was willing and able to confront people who disagreed with her.Given the movie's intelligence, how can so many people be so stupid that they believe Christina is a man just because she is wearing pants? I knew nothing about this movie before I watched it so I thought at first that the Spanish envoy believed she was a man because he first saw her from a distance and the innkeeper reflexively addressed authority-like figures as men.Then, Garbo took off her hat. She talked like a woman, looked like a woman, and made NO attempt to disguise herself. I didn't buy Dustin Hoffman and Jack Lemmon as women, but at least they wore disguises in "Tootsie" and "Some Like It Hot." And their dressing as women was explained!!This movie needed a scene where Christina says something before going horseback riding about wanting to experience life as a commoner and at least implying that this meant pretending to be a man. And she needed a disguise so the fact that EVERY stranger thinks she is a man is plausible.I was so upset by the mistaken-identity stupidity that I thought about "Christina" giving a 5. Then, I watched it again. This reinforced my appreciation for the rest of the movie.I gave "The Graduate" a 9 although Mrs. Robinson's daughter falling for Dustin after he treated her like dirt on a date and stalked her was implausible. I reasoned that a short scene with the daughter telling her Dad that she admired Dustin during their school years would have made her accepting two of his bad behaviors (but not his sleeping with her Mom) more plausible.Using similar reasoning, I gave "Christina" an 8. The absence of one 30-second scene just can't erase the fact that this movie is otherwise very smart and cinematically advanced.ZWrite