As one wealthy unelected dictator celebrates avoiding being deposed for more than half a century, we look back at some of the other queens in cinema history.
The African Queen
In Africa during WW1, a gin-swilling riverboat owner/captain is persuaded by a strait-laced missionary to use his boat to attack an enemy warship. Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn star in John Huston's Technicolour comedy about an odd couple aboard a boat in times of war. Rent $4.40
The Bandit Queen
Phoolan Devi, the Goddess of Flowers, India's Bandit Queen, surrendered with her gang on her own terms, negotiating with a police force that was unable to capture her. Shekhar Kapur's film captures the cheering crowds of ten thousand, who considered her an avenging angel, the scourge of the high castes and the rich, and protector of the low caste and poor. Rent $4.40
Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen
A teenage girl is convinced that her home city revolves around her until her family packs up and moves to the suburbs, where she finds herself competing for attention. Rent $4.40
Kings And Queen
Queen Of Spades
An elderly countess strikes a bargain with the devil and exchanges her soul for the ability to always win at cards... Thorold Dickinson's horror comedy with Edith Evans just pre-dates our glorious Queen's reign, but she might have watched it on her honeymoon. Rent $4.40
Nine Queens
Marcos observes Juan successfully pulling off a bill-changing scam on a cashier, and then getting caught as he attempts to pull the same trick on the next shift. Marcos steps in, claiming to be a policeman, and drags Juan out of the store. Once they are back on the street, Marcos reveals himself to be a fellow swindler with a game of much higher stakes in mind, and he invites Juan to be his partner in crime. Rent $4.40
Priscilla Queen Of The Desert
Australia's triumphant riposte to the accusation that it is a land without high culture. Homophobia is solved by ambitious actors dressing in provocative frocks and touring the set of 'Wake In Fright', meeting the extras and being attacked with table-tennis balls. Painful, unfunny but impossible to delete from the national psyche. Rent $4.40
Queen Margot
Young Queen Margot finds herself trapped in an arranged marriage amidst a religious war between Catholics and Protestants. She hopes to escape with a new lover, but finds herself imprisoned by her powerful and ruthless family. Rent $4.40
Virgin Queen
Sir Walter Raleigh overcomes court intrigue to win favor with Queen Bette Davis in order to get financing for a proposed voyage to the New World in Henry Koster's magnificent treatment made in Year Three of our supreme commander's glorious reign.
Queen Christina
Young Christina ascends to the Swedish throne at age 5. While she is queen, Sweden becomes a dominant European power at the end of the Thirty Years War. Like England's Elizabeth I, Christina (Greta Garbo) is pressured into a politically correct marriage (her cousin) but she falls in love with an emissary from Spain (John Gilbert). Rent $4.40