Margrete: Queen of the North (2021) is one of those movies that I took a passing glance at when it first hit American shores a year or two ago and thought, “Eh, ok. I’ll review it.” Based on a very specific point in Magrete of Denmark’s life, the “False Olaf” affair of 1402, wherein Margrete had to contend with a pretender coming to her court claiming to be her dead son Olaf, this film delivers a dud of a plot of what could be an otherwise interesting bit of dangerous court intrigue. It’s not helped by the fact that the film is dubbed really poorly in English, with about three voice actors covering every character in the most awful way possible. I tried turning the dubbing off and just going with the subtitles (which I hate doing when I’m trying to pay attention to costuming content), but there was no way around it. But we’re here to talk about the costumes and not the awful things going against the film from the start, so I stuck with it.
I will give the film props for doing three things well: 1) Replicating Margrete’s crown and not just using some cheap-ass AliExpress tiara; 2) Margrete’s hair (and indeed, all of the women’s hair in the film) is up and styled in an appropriate style for the early 15th century (even if it is a tad Game of Thrones-y); and 3) Danish actress Trine Dyrholm is about the exact right age as Margrete was in 1402 and the film lets her look like a normal, 50-something-year-old woman which I felt was pretty badass. We always can use more naturally aging female beauty representation in film!
The costumes, on the other hand, were just ok. Much like the actual film. They didn’t suck, but the weren’t anything really to write home about. Plus the film suffered from that modern trope of trying to convey that the middle ages were dark times by literally making all the costumes dark colors and filming everything in the dark so it was hard to make out details.
Even though it’s not really the fault of the film itself, the terrible English dubbing is what did this film in for me. I’m not sure why Amazon Prime didn’t give the option of watching the film in Danish with English subtitles; I ended up turning the volume off a little over halfway through because it was such a huge distraction, but it meant that I can’t really comment on whether or not the plot was historically accurate or not. If a non-dubbed version ever comes my way, I’d probably watch it because it was evident that Trine Dyrholm is a very good actress and she doesn’t deserve to have this role shit on by me due to a crappy English voice-over.
Have you seen Margeret: Queen of the North (2021)? Tell us your thoughts in the comments!
I refused to watch it when I realised they had turned a story about the most powerful woman in northern Europe, who united the Nordic countries into a union that lasted for more than a 100 years into a storu about “oh has my dead son returned:
I think it could’ve been an interesting episode to focus on, but I was disappointed that (spoilers) they went the route of implying the pretender was her real son, and having Margrete betray him and stand by while he’s executed anyway. From my understanding, the historical consensus is that he was just an imposter, so it seems like a bit of vilification to make her responsible for the death of her actual son, even if they’re trying to frame it as a politically pragmatic move.
I also don’t get why stories about pretenders always go this route, of having the pretender actually be the person they were impersonating even when historical likelihood says otherwise – you see it all the time with the Tudor-era pretenders, and it similarly ends up portraying figures like Elizabeth of York as complicit in the killing and usurpation of their actual relatives. Same thing with Anna Anderson/Anastasia, although I give the portrayals made before Anastasia’s true fate was confirmed a bit more of a pass.
I just find it weird because sure, it’s exciting to think of a long-lost royal turning up from the dead, and maybe getting betrayed by people who want to keep the throne etc etc. But isn’t it equally fascinating in a way to tell the story of an imposter managing to successfully pass themselves off as long-lost royalty? That’s such a wild thing to try and get away with! And think of the journey of being just a regular person suddenly expected to convincingly step into the shoes of royalty, knowing the consequences will be deadly if you fail (and most of them did). I honestly don’t think that’s any less interesting.
I think the movie you’re looking for is Alladin or maybe A Knight’s Tale. ;)
On a serious tip, I just checked out a Norwegian movie from my local library with HORRIBLE dubbing. Thankfully, there was a menu option to watch it in the original language with subtitles. What a huge distraction. If I hadn’t been able to do that, I don’t know if I would’ve continued watching it.
The story of the imposter was very deeply explained in the movie. We even have the “Falsche Waldemar” in Brandenburg who came to power. I think there were dozens of such persons with their attempts to get the power – there even was somebody who was telling the he was the emperor Frederick II although the emperor was dead since many years… I have more trouble with these decisions like a subject of the queen who bring forward his sword in front of the queen. Or the modern bridge at the castle’s entry while you can find so many better castles in other movies… I had the impression that the producers feared (and they had all reasons to do so) that the public would feel cheated with such a poor movie with such a great title. What would we consider reading about a movie about queen Margrete? We would suppose to see her working for the union. For a little excuse we saw a very tiny scene at Visby in the first moments of the show. But that was it.
It was funny that we saw the camp of the evil German order at the end but no raids or no sieges at all as the knights from Germany would have forgotten why they invaded Sweden because the imposter was killed. So many aspects of the plot just make no sense at all and are so much unlikely (as it is to find a single person in Prussia searched by two other persons – even the idea that the queen would think that it’s plausible is so much rediciolous)…
Thank you so much for your comment, Rochelle!
It’s so frustrating that everything has to be so darkly lit nowadays. I imagine it’s also frustrating for the costumers who work hard on creating period clothing that no one can see because everything has to be dark
I believe a cloth of gold gown actually worn by Margrethe still exists. It’s described as crimson covered with an intricate pattern of golden vines, kind of like that pictured gown. The most interesting thing about it is the skirt is longer in the front, designed for skirt hiking.
“designed for skirt hiking”
… I’m sorry, what!? How did you come to that conclusion?
It was one of the worst historical films I noticed in a cinema for the last years. No action, no excitement, boring costumes and boring actors. Some stupid plot points at least were strange enough to be entertaining such as the adventure to capture/kill the evil German spy. I loved that pirate who was looking as he had put his head into a toilet and the whole setting of the pirate harbour(?).
I have to admit that I had some expectations because I do like Danish and Swedish cinema such as “Barbara”.