Glowing stars
Dench, Mirren illuminate premieres at Venice Film Fest
VENICE, Italy — The Venice Film Festival attracts top-tier talent, as evidenced by the duo of dames each toplining a world premiere yesterday. We speak of Dame Judi Dench in “Victoria and Abdul,” which has the Oscar winner reprising her star-making role of 20 years ago as Britain’s Queen Victoria.
Dame Helen Mirren’s “The Leisure Seeker” casts her as Ella, an American on a road trip with her Alzheimer’s-afflicted husband (Donald Sutherland). The script is by Boston’s Stephen Amidon.
“I never expected to revisit this part,” Dench said of her Queen Victoria. “I have great affection for the part because I had no film career really to speak of before ‘Mrs. Brown.’ That happened because of Harvey Weinstein. ‘Mrs. Brown’ was made for TV, and with him it became a film.”
That film centered on the widowed queen’s close relationship with her Scottish servant John Brown. “Victoria and Abdul” focuses on the aged monarch’s subsequent, surprisingly intimate relationship with a handsome young Muslim from India that threatens the royal household.
“This particular story of Queen Victoria begins four years after John Brown had died and seemed to be a continuance,” Dench said.
Dench’s first best actress Oscar nomination came from “Mrs. Brown.” She won her Oscar as Queen Elizabeth I in “Shakespeare in Love.” Mirren’s career changed almost as dramatically as Dench’s with her best actress Oscar for Queen Elizabeth II in “The Queen.” Now Claire Foy has been discovered playing the young Elizabeth
II in Netflix’s “The Crown.”
What is it about playing queens that’s so captivating?
“It’s good to be queen,” Mirren said with a smile. “You usually get good costumes. They’re always very good roles, queens. My role here is definitely not one of those. Ella is not a queen but maybe in the tiny little kingdom inside that camper,” which is nicknamed The Leisure Seeker.
“Victoria and Abdul” opens Sept. 22, while “The Leisure Seeker” has a one-week Oscar-qualifying December run before opening in January.