The Abdication

source: The Abdication

The Abdication

I will never forget my first impressions while watching this movie so many years ago on TV. I absolutely loved it!! I was riveted to the screen by this complicated and multi-faceted person in history who I had here-to-fore never heard about. This movie belongs right there with other historical classics produced from the 50's to the 70's. I still remember being absolutely fascinated by Liv Ullmann's performance. What a colorful character Queen Christina of Sweden was - but Liv Ullmann made her come alive with her portrayal of an OCD personality that gave me my first introduction into a disorder that I had previously never known about. I don't know if the real Christina had OCD or not, but that was what I remembered most about the movie. I would love to see it again.

A film of suppressed emotions about suppressed sexuality, but more than that, about the nature of love and the power of giving oneself to another, and the tragedy of being unable to. This is a beautiful film, both in how it looks, and how it thinks, it is unrelentingly heartbreaking. Ullman is somehow mesmeric, you can't take your eyes off her, you feel her pain in all its rawness and wonder how one human being can endure so much. Finch's character is a support to hers, it is almost like you care for him only inasmuch as his actions affect her. This is a movie that will take your breath away, it is profoundly moving (I know what that sounds like but it is).