The Queen's Sister

It is easy to see what Brian Appleyard from the Sunday Times meant when he wrote that The Queen's Sister is a Television Landmark. As he and other serious critics have noted, the raw material is not churned into a slavish biopic in which everyone speaks in newspaper headlines, but distilled into what Appleyard called a 'potent modern myth'. The filmmakers respected Margaret's story enough to grapple with its most essential values rather than grinding through a list of surface details (though details too appear expertly rendered), creating a powerful image of a woman trying to find her soul among the glittering objects of post-imperial Britain. The piece delivers a series of sharp and often funny scenes, showing the princess as a talented woman with too little to occupy her active mind, and deepens as Margaret loses her grip on a world that has only caused her pain. It is difficult to imagine a movie that would better, or more movingly, illustrate the predicament of modern royals. Roman Holiday was based loosely on the conflicts of Princess Margaret. The Queen's Sister is the first film in many years to further the discussion.