Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context Film / QueenChristina

Go To

1[[quoteright:332:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Queen_Christina_released_in_1933_-_Starring_Greta_Garbo_John_Gilbert_Ian_Keith_and_Lewis_Stone_9763.JPG]]
2
3''Queen Christina'' is a 1933 [[UsefulNotes/ThePreCodeEra Pre-Code Hollywood]] film starring Creator/GretaGarbo as the eponymous queen of UsefulNotes/{{Sweden}} who ruled during the 17th century. Christina was very much a proto-feminist figure in many ways; not only was she an authoritative ruler, but she also dressed in men's clothes and had a generally androgynous manner. The movie plays into Garbo's ability to exploit those qualities while wrapping the whole thing in a conventional love story between Christina and her Spanish envoy (Creator/JohnGilbert), where she must ultimately make [[LoveRuinsTheRealm the choice between duty and love]].
4
5Garbo and John Gilbert had been lovers for a while in TheRoaringTwenties, and had been co-stars in hit films like ''Film/FleshAndTheDevil'' back when Gilbert was the biggest romantic leading man in Hollywood. Unfortunately for Gilbert, his career went down the crapper when talkies came in. Garbo insisted on Gilbert as her leading man in this film in an effort to revive Gilbert's career. It didn't work, and Gilbert made only one more movie, ''Film/TheCaptainHatesTheSea'', before drinking himself to death in 1936.
6
7----
8!!''Queen Christina'' contains the following tropes:
9
10* AmbiguouslyBi: Christina, before Antonio arrives. This is most obvious in the scene where her pretty and conventionally feminine lady-in-waiting, Countess Edda, arrives and complains that the queen hasn't been paying attention to her. Christina takes hold of Edda's face with both hands, kisses Edda square on the mouth, and promises that they'll go away for a weekend in the country together.
11--> '''Chancellor''': But your majesty, you cannot die an OldMaid!\
12'''Christina''': I have no intention to, chancellor! I shall die a bachelor!
13* AwesomeMomentOfCrowning: Certainly a cute one, as little Christina is given a crown at court, is hailed as king, and gives a speech.
14* {{Bifauxnen}}: Garbo as Christina is one of the earliest film examples.
15* TheChainsOfCommanding: Christina can't deal with being queen anymore when it stands in the way of true love and happiness.
16--> '''Christina''': I'm tired of being a symbol, chancellor. I long to be a human being.
17* DownerEnding: Antonio is killed in a duel and Christina goes off alone.
18* DuelToTheDeath: Between Antonio and Magnus.
19* HollywoodHistory: Big time. While many of the story's elements were based on real history (Christina's propensity for men's clothing, her reluctance to marry, her courtiers' working against her to prolong the UsefulNotes/ThirtyYearsWar), the romance between Christina and Antonio was, if not entirely fabricated, at least loosely based on events that happened years later. And it was definitely not the reason for her abdication, which had much more to do with her conversion to Roman Catholicism.
20* MeetCute: Christina and her attendant Aage come across Antonio and his company as Antonio and his carriage are breaking down in the snowdrifts. Antonio is complaining loudly about the Swedish winter when his attention is distracted by Christina.
21* AMinorKidroduction: Christina as a child being crowned upon the death of her father, before cutting forward a couple of decades to Greta Garbo.
22* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: Everyone but Garbo. And of course, since Garbo actually was Swedish, she didn't have to worry about an accent anyway.
23* RaisedAsTheOppositeGender: King Gustavus Adolphus, lacking a male heir, raises Christina to act like a boy. She dresses in men's clothing, generally acts masculine and assertive, and is addressed as "king".
24* RoyalWe: Christina uses this when addressing her court.
25* SexyScandinavian: The very Swedish Greta Garbo playing the Swedish queen Christina, set in a romanticized past all play in on the stereotype.
26* ShamingTheMob: Christina lets the mob into her palace and does this to them, basically saying that she doesn't tell them how to do their jobs so they shouldn't tell her how to do hers.
27* SmugSnake: Count Magnus.
28* TakeAThirdOption: Christina is forced to choose whether to marry Antonio and arouse the outrage of her people or marry Prince Charles, in whom she has no interest. She chooses to abdicate.
29* TorchesAndPitchforks: Count Magnus whips up an angry, torch-wielding mob that opposes the proposed Spanish alliance and wants Antonio to go home.
30* TranslationConvention: Notable in that while most of the dialogue is in English, the chatter of the Spanish envoys is in Spanish.

Top