I just finished watching this 2013 film about Mary, Queen of Scots with the same name. I do not believe that this has been widely distributed and that really is a shame. This movie is partly in English and partly in French and begins with Mary as a baby with her mother. I love that the movie included the four Maries that went with her to France to marry Francis II. Several of the scenes reminded me of portraits done of Mary, Queen of Scots, such as this one showing her in mourning after the death of Francis II.
However what I found most interesting about this film is the fact that Mary narrates a lot of it as though she was writing a letter to Elizabeth I of England. ‘This will be the last of my unsent letters’, she says shortly before her execution. She views Elisabeth as a mentor, someone who advises her and who she can look up to. She mentions in her narrative that she is adding the English arms to her own but that Elizabeth shouldn’t fear for her person because she has no plans to do something. It certainly adds something to the film.
The movie is almost two hours long and goes up to Mary’s imprisonment, and a part of the execution is shown as a flash forward but even though it covers around 20 years it doesn’t feel rushed or difficult to understand. I hope this movie will find its way to a bigger audience because it’s amazing.
This movie is not easy to understand, unless you know every detail about Mary’s life and the names of all the people around her. Furthermore, there is no indication of where we are in time or place.