Picture this: You are madly in love. It’s mutual. Together, you’re not only having fun – you’re realizing your dreams and you’re making the world a better place.
Then she gets pregnant.
Well, normally it’s great news. And his first reaction is a genuine smile. She’s really upset. Then reality sets in: She’s the QUEEN. Her husband, who she is NOT sleeping with, is the KING. And it is the 18th century.
What do you do? Run away together?
As a romantic, that’d be my vote. Even for the 18th century. It’s not like he can’t take care of them. He’s a doctor (Mads Mikkelsen).
But how does one exactly run away from servants, army, the nosiest step mother-in-law, and all the conservative council members who hate their humane ideas?
So she does the inevitable. She hates it. He hates it. But she does it.
And at least the baby is born, and she is healthy.
But then what?
Yes, eventually they get caught.
*** (I’ve not given anything that hasn’t been shown in the trailer yet, but read on at your own peril. I’ll give away the ending.)
But the tragicomic thing? They don’t get in that much trouble because of the baby. The others just use the baby to make sure the unstable king is persuaded to get rid of the doctor and the queen.
People are so obsessed with power and money. Then there’re the hilariously misinterpreted religious beliefs (“let’s not give the king’s son a vaccination- he’s royal so he’s immune by God’s doing”)…
They could have made it, but eventually, it comes down to friends selling out friends for money or to save their own butts.
The story doesn’t have a happy ending. The queen is sent to exile, the good doctor to execution.
The funny thing? The whole affair is the king’s fault. Yes, I’m serious. For one, he treats her absolutely horribly. He sleeps around with hookers, calls her a boring cow, sends away her best friend/maid…. Oh, and he is generally mental.
The doctor is brought in to restore some sanity and common sense in the king, and it starts to work. But then the king does something mad again. He tells the doctor to make the queen fun.
Seriously.
Sure. Go ahead. Tell your hot, older, wiser, sane, free-spirited and forward-thinking doctor to spend time with the young, beautiful, neglected, free-spirited queen.
I told you it was the king’s fault.
I wish they had taken the risk, and run away. They just didn’t envision the good they did coming back to bite them in the a**.
But all is not lost. Thankfully, her children (the first one is from a horrible one and only night with the king) receive her letters when they grow up, persuade their dad and make sure they grow up in a better country.
Oh, yes, the king was upset his friend was executed. He had no idea that was going to happen. Yes, he was crazy.
*
So, how is that for a story conflict?
Of course the conflicts start before this. And they keep coming after. But it is one of the most frustrating, heart-breaking and challenging conflicts I have seen. And it is based on a true story.
From a writer’s, and movie-lover’s perspective, the whole story/movie is gold.
From a romantic’s perspective, it is a nightmare until the affair. The relationship between the doctor and queen, even before the affair, is amazing. It’s a nightmare again when she becomes pregnant.
Yes, the movie is absolutely recommended. I’m still disappointed it didn’t get the Oscar for Best Foreign Film this year.
*
What would you do in a situation like that?
Don’t forget – 1700s, it is an affair, you are the queen or the doctor. There are no easy ways out.
If it were your story, how would it end?
Boy, that’s a really heavy story. Imagining myself in their shoes was actually quite scary. That’s what makes it such a great conflict, as you say, Pinar. It’s something that anyone could genuinely relate to, and therefore, I predict it’ll probably win loads of awards.
Ah now, if it were my story you ask, I’d be in a pickle because I’m a Saggitarian and a Dragon and put those together you’ve got one annoyingly sunny person. When I walk along the street I have to actively turn down the wattage on my smile so people don’t think I’m some sort of loon. Therefore it’d have to be happy ending all the way for me, and therefore – tragedy ruined – and it’d probably suck. That’s pretty much why, in a nutshell, I so cleave to PJ’s ways of thinking because I need to learn how to be mean to my protagonists!
Ha ha, I used to be an annoyingly sunny person too until I joined the dark side…Just kidding: ) OK, growing up did take away some of “the sunniness”. But in my defense, it all happened because I wasn’t getting happy endings in my own life. And a fun-loving romantic, I am a sucker for great happy endings: )
I was pretty sad at the end of the movie, and I’d have given them a happy ending and my version wouldn’t probably have been that effective to people. But I still belong to the “true love must conquer all” school. So even though I put my characters through hell in my stories, I reward them accordingly. : )
But even though I am not as shiny happy as I used to be, when I am really happy, it is still more than the most euphoric moments of most individuals. I try to keep it under control so that people won’t want to beat me or something;)
Despite the ending, I believe you’d love the story. I love characters who you would have fallen for/wanted to have made friends with/wanted to keep them as allies despite the setting and the era.
I’d fall in love with the doctor today, just as easily I’d have if I were her in that time…
So in other words, you’re a rocker and a romantic, Pinar. Nice combination.
Yes, I fear I probably have a vein running to a deep romantic core that lies beneath all the hurt inflicted by the Mr Wrongs over the years. I like to think it’s not there, and that I’m above all that mushy stuff. You ever see the movie, My Brilliant Career? In which the heroine was a budding writer, who gave up love & marriage for a writing career. She’s how I’ve always seen myself, whether I’ve been married or not (which I have been, twice). I’ve been on my own for 4 years now, and am content to continue as the spinster writer forever, if need be. However, the triangle on my left palm says otherwise. I had a palm reading done years ago, and the guy said the triangle on my lifeline represents ‘true love’, and that I would experience that at some stage in my life. I thought my last ex-husband was said-true-love but my wonderful friend, who is a clairvoyant, said I haven’t met him yet. Do I believe in true love anymore? This is the question. As I said before, I suspect romantic belief lurks underneath my current cynicism on the subject. Funny thing that, the way women believe in romance, maybe it’s true for all women even the ones who did live the better part of their days as spinsters or widows…
Yep, a rocker romantic- which means I love fun, excitement but I want loyalty and trust. And I won’t settle. So basically, I’m the anti-thesis of most men look for, and the men I look for are extremely rare species. I’m used to being single, because I don’t meet men who make me happier than I make myself. Why should I bother with relationships? Go singledom: )
But once in a while, you watch movies like this, see characters like those (the man’s pre-affair self is also very close to my personality) and wonder if life also harbors such connections…
I believe true romantics – not the candles-are-everything, marriage-obssessed group; but the ones who believe in everlasting mutual love – make the best (and the strongest cynics.) I’m pretty cynical too.
I do have a relationships/dating blog in the same cynical/romantic fashion. I think you’d enjoy it. : )
http://21stcenturydatingandrelationships.blogspot.com
Yes, I did subscribe to your other blog. We share a similar outlook. The way I feel now, being a fair bit older than you I presume, is if it’s not “everlasting mutual love” then why bother? As you’ve already said, I live such a blissful life, I’m not about to clutter it up with just anyone. 🙂
Here’s the link to my website http://www.yvettecarol.com If you want to join the mailing list, I’ll let you know when the mythical day comes that my first book is accepted! Funny thing, I was too shy to put a subscribe widget on there until about 2 days ago, because I was scared no one would sign up. Yet, two days later, to my surprise, my own mailing list has begun! Wow. Talk about moving on up. Hee.
I subscribed to your email list, and will jump at it if you start blog posts too!! 🙂 Congrats on the mailing list, and I have checked out your mini-posts/updates…
I’m open to just fun- but even during fun, I want more romantic fun. Like Before Sunrise. It doesn’t have to be that romantic, but there has to be some intense connection one way or the other. If there are no emotions, no crush possibility, chemistry doesn’t build up. So what’s the point? 🙂
Fingers crossed for all our books & stories to be published, and sell and be read widely. Are you finished with your draft and hunting for agents/publishers?
Thanks for the sign up, babe. I don’t foresee myself adding a blog at this stage. I treat the front page of my site as a pseudo-blog, because I like refreshing it once a week, it keeps the energy fresh. Although, I don’t rule out the possibility of creating a real blog in future…
Yes to the ‘intense connection’ part. I feel there are plenty of crushes ahead for you. Pinar, you’re so young, you have a whole life ahead in which to feel the sparks fly. Nothing wrong with having standards, that’s for sure.
Thanks for the supportive words re my books. 🙂 My first book in the Records of Aden series is sitting with a trad. publisher at the mo. But you know what scares me? It’s that, in working on the second book, I keep learning so much and changing it so greatly each week, that I feel my work has grown in leaps & bounds. All I want to do is get my hands on that first book and rip it to shreds. I can’t even imagine what it must be like to have a book published already — on the shelves, in people’s hands — and yet, you’ve already changed so much that you can see flaws in it everywhere, but it’s too late, the world is judging you. Eeeks.
I may or may not have found a new writing partner as of this week (he’s still yet to actually say yes). He posted a ‘first page test’ on one of the writer’s forums I comment on. Then, behind the scenes, he critiqued my first page (from 2nd book), and he kicked me more or less through the ceiling of my own ability. Now, the first page is on a whole other level. Hence, my begging him to be my partner. But, I can see how, I can take this series to a whole other place than I was doing on my own. Man, I want to get my hands on book one!!
Anyway, speaking of works-in-progress, what are you working on?
Best of luck with your potential partner and your books:)
I’m not that advanced in the publishing stages. I’ll try to enter a screenwriting competition in the summer (with both a TV and a movie script), and I have a finished first draft for a romantic/comedy/drama/novel.
I’m also trying to balance the fiction with non-fiction. I was recently hired by an editor to write regularly for a website, but I’m not sure our “marriage” will work. We have different perceptions of how things work, and we are both right, though she does seem to undermine my resources a little. She overstates, and I understate. I hope we work it out:)
I also teach English part-time (which enables me to finance fiction and be choosy with non-fiction), and am suffering from nerve entrapment on my wrists so that messes up my time-management skills a bit. But hey, I refuse to surrender…
P.S. If you start blogging, I doubt you’ll be able to stop. It’s addictive. I only had to slow down due to my wrists and currently I’m searching for a speech-to-text program that works fine and doesn’t cost a fortune.
Never surrender, darling! Fight to the end. That’s what our grandmothers would have done. Man, my gran had bone cancer, pagets disease, arthritis, you name it and yet, she lived alone in her own home and was still baking, and taking care of business right up to the end.
That’s interesting to hear a bit more about you, Pinar. Yes, I find teachers often make great writers. It seems to be a natural progression. Congrats on finishing the first draft. Isn’t it satisfying to write ‘the end’ on it? Love that.
That writer on the forum asked me what a writing partner was, today. Funny he’d never heard of it before, but then he is English… I said it’s like a beta reader, or a critique group of two. At any rate, he’d suggested more changes to the first page, and I really do feel he’s making the story accessible to the male mind, which is a huge advantage. I suggested he send me his first page and if he likes my input, then we could talk ‘mutual advantage’. I far far prefer having a writing partner to having to attend my real live critique group. Way better.
To blog or not to blog, that is the question. I seem to have been asking it for years now. Still no closer to a decision!
Grandmothers are something else, aren’t they? I’ve just read about a 99-year-old woman climbing down 35-meter-tall buildings, without assistance! Wow. I can only say fingers crossed!!! 🙂
What’s the problem with your live critique group? I’ve never had one, so I had to ask.
Please keep me posted about your “potential” English partner.
Writing the end, even if it is only the first draft, feels amazing because the characters stop haunting you at that point. I love my characters, but I’d rather be haunted by new ones.
Well, if you feel like blogging, you’ll blog. You’ve got to love the freedom of having your own publication. You call all the shots! 🙂
True! My critique group is an awesome bunch of ladies there’s no doubt about that. It’s worthwhile belonging to a group, I believe, and I recommend you do find one. It just didn’t work for me, for a few reasons. I’m too introverted to find it anything but a chore to be duty-bound to these people, to have to turn up and spend two hours with them. It was quite draining for me. Also, I have two rambunctious boys still at home, and I only get one day off a week, so I find it nearly impossible to give part of that day over to a critique group. I found that the group was made up of a small handful of ‘givers’ but a far greater number of ‘takers’ — always submitting heaps to be critiqued but barely giving back more than ‘it’s good’ on everyone elses work. So, I found myself resenting going. And I haven’t been back in over a year now. As I said, once Maria started working with me via email, as writing partners I had all the critiquing help I needed and in the form that works best for me! 🙂
Hey, as to Bill (that’s the English dude’s name), I was really disappointed last night when he more or less replied saying after I’ve looked at two pages you’ll be able to do the rest yourself. And you know what was worse? He sent me his first page and there was nothing to critique. He’s like some sort of superstar writer. I was so shocked. I’m like, I’m of no value to you whatsoever. Who are you? You alien. Just kidding, I didn’t say the last part.
But, then all was saved, when he wrote today, saying it’s only that he’s really busy, but that I could send him pages I want help with and it might take a while for him to work on them. I thought, hey, I’ll take anything I can get. But I didn’t say that of course, I said, ‘Thanks!’ Ha ha
🙂 It’s hard to find a mutually supportive and beneficial writing peer/group. Once I’d tried to compare notes with a guy in high school, supposedly a good friend of mine.
He tore my piece to pieces, though his comments didn’t make sense because he hadn’t been to the location and I had (he claimed something wasn’t possible, even though I’d witnessed it firsthand!) and I had been nice with his script because I didn’t want to hurt his feelings.
I know, bad of me but if I had been honest, I’d have had to tell him that it was horribly unoriginal, and silly. Granted we are not friends anymore (not because he was unreasonable with my script, but because I’d made a comment on his style he didn’t appreciate…)
I’d not hold back now, but even at my harshest I’d not say it sucked. For one thing, you need to appreciate the effort to have written it. Constructive criticism over childish insulting any day…;)