Movies: A Royal Affair (En Kongelig Affære)

The 18th century gave birth to new thinking. Reformers began to challenge the brutal dictatorship by the aristocrats and the church and tried to shift power to the common people. But, of course, they met a lot of resistance. The movie "A Royal Affair (En Kongelig Affære)" (imdb) tells an episode of this struggle which happened in Denmark, a tiny country north of Germany. The flick focuses on the real story of the German doctor Johann Friedrich Struensee who was royal physician to the mentally ill King Christian VII of Denmark, became a minister in the Danish government and had an affair with the Queen (). 

It´s a pity that the flick was produced in Danish. "Royal Affair" is running in US theaters with subtitles which keep the film away from the mass market where it belongs. Last weekend the movie was shown just in one of New York City`s legion of cinema theaters.

Anyway I like everything that the movie offered:
I got sucked into the plot about Struensee`s career as a reform politician in a foreign country and as the lover of the Queen that created a lot of drama and suspense.
The Scandinavian cast met the high Hollywood acting standard. Mads Mikkelsen, known as the villain in "Casino Royale", played a convincing Struensee. Mikkel Følsgaard impressed as the mad and whimsical King and the beauty of Alicia Vikander gave the movie its charm.
Cinematographer Rasmus Videbæk - in cooperation with the production and costume designers - transferred the audience to a flamboyant but vicious baroque world. 

"A Royal Affair" is highly watchable for those who are interested in historical dramas and don´t mind listening to a rather exotic European language.