QUEEN Of THE DESERT, In Competition at Berlin 2015, A chronicle of Gertrude Bell's life, a traveler, writer, archaeologist, explorer, cartographer, and political attaché for the British Empire at the dawn of the twentieth century. You've heard heard of "Sheena, Queen of the Jungle": Now meet "Gertie, Queen of the Desert" as portrayed by an ever lovely and delicate Nicole Kidman in Werner Herzog's epic sandy biopic of English aristocrat Gertrude Bell, who became a sort of female Lawrence of Arabia when she was enthralled by the purity of the way of life of the Bedouin nomads of the middle eastern deserts and ventured on her own into the interior to study their cultures first hand and hob- nob with the sheiks despite strong objections by the British governors in Cairo and Baghdad. Along the way you'll also run into a gritty dropout Lawrence of Arabia who comes on like a skateboarder in drag and a bungling caricature of Winston Churchill falling all over himself as he attempts to mount a camel worried mainly about his lit cigar that got dumped in the process. See Fantastic sandune-scapes and the prettiest camels ever screened to fill out this vast portrait of the Middle East in World War I when the lines in the sand were drawn which stake out today's Arab Spring Nightmare. Topical background in view of today's headlines -- ISIS beheadings and incineration of hostages and all that, most lushly filmed in Morocco and Jordan with an extensive cast you will need a scorecard to keep track of and so long it feels like GWTW, but worth the patience it takes to sit through especially if you are a Werner Herzog unconditional and, like myself, a lover of camels.
Quite beautiful to watch but it does take patience and should be provided with an intermission to break up the interminability. In the packed house press screening I attended on the first full day of the festival there was a steady trickle of walkouts after the halfway mark and sparse polite applause at the end. Might win something, however, because this is Herzog Lifework homage year in Berlin but is really overblown with many hoaky impersonations of Arab Shieks and Kidman -- though more radiant than ever -- is far too delicate a flower to portray the hardy desert survivor the real Gertrude Bell of the title (1868 - 1926) must have been -- and at forty a bit old to play a teenager and a young women in her twenties. INDIE-WIRE comment: The legendary filmmaker's first movie in competition at the Berlin International Film Festival in decades is a catastrophe. What gives? -- Well, sometimes something's gotta give ....
Quite beautiful to watch but it does take patience and should be provided with an intermission to break up the interminability. In the packed house press screening I attended on the first full day of the festival there was a steady trickle of walkouts after the halfway mark and sparse polite applause at the end. Might win something, however, because this is Herzog Lifework homage year in Berlin but is really overblown with many hoaky impersonations of Arab Shieks and Kidman -- though more radiant than ever -- is far too delicate a flower to portray the hardy desert survivor the real Gertrude Bell of the title (1868 - 1926) must have been -- and at forty a bit old to play a teenager and a young women in her twenties. INDIE-WIRE comment: The legendary filmmaker's first movie in competition at the Berlin International Film Festival in decades is a catastrophe. What gives? -- Well, sometimes something's gotta give ....