Susanna Beharall

Potent because of what is left unsaid. After the hysterical posturings of Hollywood this film charms and satisfies in its unhurried realism and quiet unfolding of events.

An extraordinary film in which it's hard to find a moral centre. The characters are cynical, self-serving, cruel and manipulative but completely fascinating because they ring true. The set resembles a Hogarth cartoon with wigs, britches, buckles and overflowing bosoms and the humour is as dark. Women are there to be seduced, men to be manipulated, while the mad Queen grows ever madder, more unpredictable and tyrannical but strangely pitiful in her lucid moments.