Queen Christina
Queen Christina
NR | 26 December 1933 (USA)
Watch Now on Max

Watch with Subscription, Cancel anytime

Watch Now
Queen Christina Trailers View All

Queen Christina of Sweden is a popular monarch who is loyal to her country. However, when she falls in love with a Spanish envoy, she must choose between the throne and the man she loves.

Reviews
Exoticalot

People are voting emotionally.

KnotStronger

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

View More
Catangro

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

View More
Mandeep Tyson

The acting in this movie is really good.

writers_reign

Garbo retired from the screen long before I was going to movies so I've had to catch up with her piecemeal; Two-Faced Woman, for example, never seems to surface whilst Ninotchka is ubiquitous. Recently I acquired a boxed set which I'm working my way through and via which I have just watched Queen Christina. This definitely belongs in the category known as 'they don't make 'em like that anymore' and in this case the cliché describes both the film itself and Greta Garbo who remains luminous some 80 odd years on. People like Lewis Stone, C. Aubrey Smith and Akim Tamiroff, fine actors though they are to a man, simply don't exist in Garbo's world which is ironic as Akim Tamiroff is always spoken of as someone 'the camera loves'. I have no idea how much, if any, of the story is historically factual and frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn when Garbo is available to beguile and enchant.

View More
Nan Bauer

There were great beauties in Hollywood prior to this, and good actresses, but Garbo was the one with both: a perfect face, at once impassive yet exquisitely expressive. Her reported reluctance to enter the sound era proves groundless; her voice is pleasant, low, accented just enough to give her a touch of mystery and worldliness. With Dietrich, the illusion is part and parcel of the package; change a light or a camera angle and there is not a lot of there there. Garbo is substance writ large on a flawless surface. Her charisma is so great that even the creaky script – the first few minutes, before she appears, signal a movie every bit as old-fashioned as Orphans of the Storm – comes to life. She holds her gazes exactly the right amount of time, and exudes a restless individuality with an unrushed exterior. She's a glory of contradictions, and you simply don't want to look away from her or miss a second of her complexity.Read more at Cinema 1001. This movie is #76 in the Schneider list of 1001 Movies.

View More
angelofvic

If you really want to see Garbo's greatest performance, greatest role, and greatest movie, THIS is it. This movie will delight you thoroughly, tug at your heartstrings, and leave you helplessly bedazzled by the greatest actress of her age.There isn't a false note or wasted moment in this masterpiece of a film. John Gilbert, Garbo's true love in real life, plays her beloved in this movie. Both stars create fireworks and warmth, and both conjure up an unforgettable screen romance.Forget all the slick CGI flicks and the thin, over-hyped blockbusters endlessly served up to audiences today. This movie grabs you from the very first scene, and never lets you go. Garbo's power and presence and brilliant acting dominate the film and make a thrilling story even more memorable.You won't regret watching this film -- I guarantee that!

View More
Cyke

096: Queen Christina (1933) - released 12/26/1933, viewed 6/25/07. KEVIN: This is the Garbo film I've been waiting for. This time the movie itself is good and not just her. Backed by Rouben Mamoulian's stunning direction, Queen Christina is very loosely based on the life of the 17th century queen of Sweden, who inherited the throne at the age of 6 while her country was steeped in the Thirty Years' War. When she becomes an adult, the story focuses largely on her torrid love affair with the Spanish ambassador Antonio (John Gilbert). Historical inaccuracies aside, this is a beautiful, touching, romantic and often humorous classic. The film pares down the real queen's homosexuality, but it does have fun with her penchant for cross-dressing. One of my favorite scenes is when Christina (pretending to be a man) learns that she will be sharing a room with the dashing Antonio, and hilariously tries to talk her way out of revealing her identity. Although Gilbert (her co-star from Flesh and the Devil) is certainly likable and has great chemistry, he just isn't at the same level as Garbo in any scene. I usually find movies about political intrigue hugely uninteresting, but Garbo's performance manages to inject Christina with real struggles and tangible desires that don't seem simply tacked on or scripted. There was some great storytelling, with some interesting twists and turns, but I found the tragic ending was the only predictable plot twist.DOUG: This has been my favorite Greta Garbo film yet. Garbo was a very powerful actress in Hollywood, and she got to decide what films she wanted to do. So naturally, she said "I want to play the queen of Sweden." John Gilbert does his part as a Spanish noble who falls for the Queen, and he is good, but this is Garbo's show all the way. I don't believe that Garbo ever did a movie with a leading man with the screen presence she had. And yes, it's hard to believe that Antonio could ever mistake Christina for a man; just go with it. Coming off of silent pictures, Garbo's acting style used to be a little overdone for sound. She seems to have gotten the hang of it, but her silent skills come in handy when she must get across a lot of emotion without words, such as one scene where she is roaming around the bedroom, looking at things, touching things, "memorizing this room," as she says, or in my favorite scene, where she stops a raging mob with her stone-cold gaze. Saw the ending coming ten minutes before it happened. Still, for classic film fans, definitely recommended.Last film: Counsellor At Law (1933). Next film: Sons of the Desert (1933).

View More