'Margrete: Queen of the North' review: Danes reveal royal secrets Los Angeles Times

Table Of Content

• Similar Movies
• Tine Fischer appointed director of Danish Film Institute
• Movies / TV
• Minerva Pictures and TVCO board Kat Rohrer’s comedy romance ‘What A Feeling’ (exclusive)
• ‘Margrete – Queen of the North’ Teaser, Poster Unveiled by REinvent, SF Studios (EXCLUSIVE)
• More From the Los Angeles Times
• Only registered users or subscribers can comment on this article.

However, just as Margrete is about to slip out of the castle to rendezvous with Oluf and Asle, Jakob Nilsson arrives to see her, newly returned from his escapade in Prussia. Realising that Scandinavian unity is more important in the face of the Teutonic threat than her personal feelings, Margrete betrays Oluf, who is quickly recaptured by Erik's men. Margrete manages to persuade Erik to spare Asle, but Oluf is publicly burned alive as a traitor in front of his mother.

Similar Movies

Queen Margrete (Trine Dyrholm) has achieved what no man has managed before. She has gathered Denmark, Norway and Sweden into a peace-oriented union, which she single-handedly rules through her young, adopted son, Erik. The union is beset by enemies, however, and Margrete is therefore planning a marriage between Erik and an English princess. An alliance with England should secure the union's status as an emerging European power but a breathtaking conspiracy is under way that can tear Margrete and all she believes in apart. Margrete - Queen of the North, also known as Margrete den første in Danish, is directed by Danish filmmaker Charlotte Sieling, director of the films Above the Street Below the Water and The Man previously, plus eps of "The Strain", "Queen of the South", "Homeland", "Lovecraft Country". The screenplay is written by Jesper Fink & Maya Ilsøe & Charlotte Sieling, from an idea by Lars Bredo Rahbek.

Tine Fischer appointed director of Danish Film Institute

It’s a sequence that, along with the portrayal of the dignified Queen, proudly locates a precursor to the region’s modern-day reputation for progressiveness in terms of gender equality and women’s rights, all the way back in the 14th century. During the feast to welcome the English party to Kalmar, the Norwegian magnate Asle Jonsson tells Margrete that en route to Kalmar he met a man who had come from Graudenz (in Prussia) and claims to be Oluf, Margrete's son. Oluf had as a child been king of both Denmark and Norway, but had died suddenly at Falsterbo fifteen years previously (i.e. in 1387).

Movies / TV

The roles include Ophelia in Shakespeare's 'Hamlet' and Esmeralda in Victor Hugo's 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame'. Her roles in film and TV include the Swedish mini-series 'Rosenbaum' (1993), Jon Bang Carlsen's 'Carmen & Babyface' (1995), Carsten Sønder's 'Love, don't love (1995), and Jørn Faurschou's 'Dangerous Friendship ' (1995). This led her to apply to the Danish Film School, where she graduated as a screenwriter in 1995.

The true story behind the forthcoming film ‘Queen of the North’ - The Copenhagen Post - Danish news in english

The true story behind the forthcoming film ‘Queen of the North’.

Posted: Sun, 25 Jul 2021 07:00:00 GMT [source]

Charlotte Sieling • Director of Margrete – Queen of the North

Because moviegoing carries risks during this time, we remind readers to follow health and safety guidelines as outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and local health officials. With a big budget by Scandinavian standards, “Margrete – Queen of the North” marks the first biopic movie about Margrete the First, a woman ahead of her time who sacrificed herself completely for her vision and for her countries. “Margrete -Queen of the North” is one of the titles set to be presented in the work in progress section at Goteborg’s virtual Nordic Film Market. And then one thing we definitely agreed on was that we couldn’t cheat in terms of the time. I didn’t know so much about my hair and makeup woman [AnnaCarin Lock], I didn’t know she was a nerd about braiding.

On the other hand, Asle Jonsson and the Norwegian councillors are adamant that the Man from Graudenz is Oluf, and the more Margrete speaks to him, the more she starts to wonder if he really is her son. A further element of doubt is introduced when she discovers that none of her councillors saw Oluf's corpse after his supposed death, as they were all too afraid of infection from the plague to open his coffin. In 1402, Margrete summons the leading magnates of the three kingdoms to Kalmar Castle to witness Erik's betrothal to Philippa of England, the daughter of King Henry IV of England. Philippa is accompanied by an English lord, William Bourcier, who has been tasked with negotiating the financial and political terms of the marriage agreement. Margrete is especially keen to establish a strong military alliance with England in order to deter attacks by the Union's German enemies, in particular the Teutonic Order, which rules Prussia and has also recently seized the Swedish island of Gotland. The Union [EU] is filled with political issues, national and personal that people want out of it.

‘Margrete – Queen of the North’ Teaser, Poster Unveiled by REinvent, SF Studios (EXCLUSIVE)

Without comparing ourselves to Shakespeare, we chose the theme and set it across nine days – it’s not a biopic of Margrete’s whole life. We chose that way of telling her story because we thought this is the real drama. How can the king keep his kingdom, and what does he have to pay for holding onto power? Fortunately in our world, it was a woman, and we could tell her true story. When you talk about age, we can also talk about culture and differences.

As an adult I’ve thought about the usefulness of a monarchy in a modern age, if any. But on New Year’s Eve, when the queen reads her annual speech, I am moved. That Margrete I was a uniting force is beyond doubt, but our Margrete II is also someone we can gather around, an important part of our collective identity as Danes and something that tells us who we are.

It’s now more important than ever because we’re more lonely now than ever. Stories and characters can invite an audience into a moment, to encounter things that we can’t talk about, and maybe we don’t understand, but we can recognise them and feel that we’re not alone in carrying them. It’s important that art is about carrying it together, about understanding and recognising moments that we can’t talk about, and therefore we have art to discuss these issues. Additionally, this is the first real gala premiere since before Covid.

“Margrete - Queen Of The North is a page-turner of a script and a truly grand ambition which has generated record-breaking grants from financiers,” said Skov and Rahbek, producers at SF Studios Denmark. Nevertheless, Charlotte also started directing TV on DR. She was invited to Rejseholdet, where she stayed and made episodes for two years, and there she became a self-taught director for the next 12 years. The film ends with a brief text stating that the Kalmar Union lasted for a further century after Margrete's death, and claiming that the close affinity that exists to this day between the three Scandinavian nations is in large part thanks to her.

Cinema creates a safe space where borders are broken down and the emphasis on political, cultural, and economic divisions are neutralised. It also offers sanctuary from a society that’s seeing a rise in individualism and nationalism. In conversation with PopMatters, Sieling and Dyrholm discuss reinvigorating the clichés of the middle ages to tell a modern story out of the past. Throughout, both the character and the film constantly keep one guessing as to whether Margrete’s driving impulse leans more in the direction of the maternal or the Machiavellian. Sieling maintains an equally firm handle on the potent material, but it’s the title performance by Dyrholm that makes it sizzle.

I don’t know if I’m right, but that’s what I believe in. The year is 1402 and Margrete rules with her adopted son Erik (Morten Hee Andersen) and her religious advisor Peder (Søren Malling, the father in Christian Tafdrup’s Parents), when a man appears who claims to be her biological son and legal heir. Trouble is brewing from the Teutonic neighbour and the union of Erik with Princess Philippa (Diana Martinová) of England may not work out the way it was planned. As much as Margrete insists that “peace has made us wealthy,” she knows that there are forces abound who want power and don’t mind plunging their countries back into war. Award-winning Queen Of Hearts actress Trine Dyrholm will play a different kind of queen in Charlotte Sieling’s historical epic Margrete – Queen Of The North. That evening Margrete has Asle spring Oluf from his prison cell, intending that the three of them will escape together to Bergen, though she realises that this will probably lead to war between Norway and Denmark-Sweden.