REGNANT PAUSE

ELIZABETH: A PORTRAIT IN PARTS Her Majesty as you’ve never seen her before…

Arriving in time for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations, Elizabeth: A Portrait In Parts is an archive-driven documentary celebrating the life of Britain’s longest-serving monarch. It also happens to be the very last film by celebrated filmmaker Roger Michell (The Duke), who died in September 2021. When Teasers spoke to Michell four months before he unexpectedly passed away, he was in the final stages of completing the film.

“Imagine the cover of [The Beatles’ album] Sgt. Pepper,” he explained. “It’s a sort of collage about the Queen. And it’s mischievous. And it’s funny. And it’s respectful. And it’s irreverent. And it’s adoring. And it’s ended up as a sort of love letter to the Queen.” Indeed, that is exactly what this warm, affectionate portrait of Elizabeth II is, playing without talking head commentators and unfolding in thematic sections, rather than chronological order.

Michell’s previous experience of the documentary form was 2018’s Nothing Like A Dame, a look at British acting stalwarts Judi Dench, Joan Plowright, Eileen Atkins and Maggie Smith that proved influential here. “I think there was always something in his mind about the public and the private and the performance that it is to be Queen,” suggests Kevin Loader, the film’s producer, who worked with Michell for years.

After approaching the communications team at Buckingham Palace, Michell and Loader began to collaborate with experienced archive researchers to trawl through the wealth of footage available of the Queen. “The oldest piece of archive is over 90 years old,” says Loader. “It’s one of those very early shots of the Queen as a very small princess, shaking hands with someone. But it’s a remarkable idea that you’re making a documentary about somebody who’s still alive, and there’s a piece of footage in it over 90 years old.”

While one section is titled ‘Horribilis’ and features footage from various dramas that rocked the Royal Family, Michell and Loader were keen to avoid digging over scandals. Instead, it’s a nod to a monarch whose 70-year reign has seen 15 Prime Ministers come and go. “The thing that Roger and I both thought… she’s both extraordinary and quite ordinary,” says Loader. “There’s a kind of modesty and an ordinariness about her, which has allowed her to be so brilliantly connected to everyone.”

With clips that will excite any eager Royal watcher (such as a rare glimpse of her caught off guard at the races, for example), Michell’s exploration of the enigma that is HRH and what she means to the world is also a lasting testament to his skills as a filmmaker. “I think a lot of his qualities are in it,” says Loader. “I think there’s a humanity and an empathy to the subject of the Queen. There’s a twinkle [in it] and everything he did had that twinkle.”

‘She’s both extraordinary and quite ordinary’ KEVIN LOADER

ELIZABETH: A PORTRAIT IN PARTS OPENS IN CINEMAS ON 27 MAY AND IS ON PRIME VIDEO FROM 1 JUNE.