Based on the true story of Caroline Mathilda, the English princess who married King Christian VII of Denmark in the early 1770s, A Royal Affair is a bold, sumptuous tale of illicit love and political passion on a sweeping, epic scale. Keen to be a dutiful wife and Queen, Caroline's hopes are soon dashed when she discovers the King's true madness. Turning away from the King she finds herself in the arms of the King's physician -- a radical libertarian -- with whom she embarks upon a passionate affair that would bring the kingdom to the brink of revolution.
Reviews
Empire Magazine
Anna Smith
“In the dark about Danish royal history? Then you’re in for a treat with this colourful drama.”
12/06/2012
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The Daily Mail
Chris Tookey
“We British may draw parallels with our Royal Family, which gives the film a cheeky topicality. But this is an intelligent, realistic costume drama of the kind we rarely see. The last one on offer was The King’s Speech, and A Royal Affair deserves to reach the same mature audience. Though it is not on an epic scale, it is a thoughtful period piece that can stand comparison with Fred Zinnemann’s A Man For All Seasons and David Lean’s Doctor Zhivago.”
15/06/2012
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The Observer
Philip French
“This struggle between a conservative, repressive regime and representatives of the Enlightenment preceded the French Revolution and is crucially related to the issues of their day and to the present.”
17/06/2012
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The Daily Telegraph
Robbie Collin
“Arcel gives this true story the shape and bite of a well-crafted fiction, and its political themes are every bit as stirring as the romance. Mikkelsen, a deserving award winner at Cannes this year for another film, can speak paragraphs with a single curl of his lip, and Vikander fluoresces as the young royal consort.”
14/06/2012
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The Times
Kate Muir
“Silks and satins swish, wigs wobble, reputations rise and fall. All in all, it’s a long, slow, Scandi pleasure. ”
15/06/2012
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The Sunday Times
Cosmo Landesman
“Lovely to look at, with first-rate performances, especially from Mikkelsen, it’s engaging both as a love story and as a study of the compromises of power. ”
17/06/2012
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Screen
Mike Goodridge
“As played by the dynamic Swedish newcomer Alicia Vikander and stalwart Danish star Mads Mikkelsen, the characters are the stuff of legend - idealists in love whose own romance is doomed to fail. It’s a heady brew of passion, politics and tragedy that Arcel cooks up with the right blend of new-style authenticity and old-fashioned melodrama.”
17/02/2012
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Total Film
Ellen E Jones
“A story fit for the Mail Online's sidebar of shame.”
13/06/2012
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Time Out
Cath Clarke
“Don’t go expecting a hornet’s nest of Scandinavian outrage from this chronicle of the political sex scandal that rocked 1770s Denmark. ‘A Royal Affair’ is the definition of classy period drama: well acted, intelligently scripted with a small-ish dose of bodice-ripping. It’s almost impeccable, in fact, if ever-so-slightly underpowered. ”
13/06/2012
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The Scotsman
Alistair Harkness
“Plot machinations and elegant style of this Scandinavian costume romp may end up being broadly similar to any number of period dramas about the British monarchy, but the change of setting, alternative faces and absence of RP accents imbues it with a freshness it might not otherwise have had.”
14/06/2012
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The Evening Standard
Derek Malcolm
“Nikolaj Arcel’s well-upholstered film is not just a love story but a social and political treatise, with the goings-on at a rich court effectively contrasted with the poverty outside. The question is how to persuade the diffident king to force Rousseau-like liberalism on his deeply conservative subjects.”
15/06/2012
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The Financial Times
Nigel Andrews
“The movie is oddly gripping. Gripping, because history decided here to sketch a chapter stranger than fiction. Odd, because the film plays like a Dogme95 weirded-out tragicomedy – school of Festen or The Idiots – afflicted with costumes rather as a person might be afflicted with psoriasis. Such a modern-seeming story; such strange, foreign eruptions on the characters’ bodies.”
14/06/2012
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The Guardian
Henry Barnes
“The story has been romanticised but Arcel's adaptation still lacks passion. While the relationship between doctor and patient is developed adroitly, the chemistry between Mikkelsen and Vikander barely simmers, when it should boil. Nevertheless, it's a fascinating affair of state.”
14/06/2012
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The Independent
Anthony Quinn
“Even Voltaire expressed his admiration of the country's pioneering liberalism. Nikolaj Arcel pays close attention to detail and setting, and draws a superb performance from Mikkel Boe Følsgaard as the half-childish, half-deranged king.”
15/06/2012
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The Independent on Sunday
Nicholas Barber
“It's as much about social reform as bodice-ripping. Struensee is determined to impose Enlightenment ideas on Denmark, but a cabal of aristocrats is aghast at the very thought of outlawing torture or vaccinating the populace against smallpox, so they use Struensee's romance with the Queen against him.”
17/06/2012
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