In light of upcoming international releases for Queen of the Desert, allow me to take you on a visual trip into some screenshots from German clips and “fotos” released from the official German site for the film. No word yet on when we can see this large-scale saga on our screens in the U.S. Reviews abroad, so far, have been mixed, some going so far as to say that with such a conventional romantic epic, Herzog has stepped perilously far from the avant-garde aesthetic which has defined his work to date. Needless to say, one of the preeminent directors of our time certainly took a chance with this enterprise. But, what’s the value of achieving preeminence if not to be given a license to take chances every now and then? One thing is certain from the trailers and clips we’ve seen: the actors involved in this project have given it their all. I’ll, of course, focus here on Damian’s work in this film, picking apart the few glimpses we’ve seen so far.
The muted palette with which Queen of the Desert is filmed lends it the feeling of a world seen through a thin layer of dust. Yet while we feel the heat rise off the sand, it seems we’re also at a cold remove from the characters. Perhaps this is one of the biggest critiques of the film: that the layers of dust don’t really let us into the character’s hearts. For his part, Damian Lewis in the part of Charles Doughty-Wylie certainly does try to convey the contents of his heart in his scenes with Nicole Kidman as Gertrude Bell.
Witness the two clips we found (thanks to QueenFilmFan and Damian-Lewis.com). Both clips are in German with no subtitles. Since I know absolutely no German, my analysis of them is based solely on the emotions they convey.
Now for an aside about dubbing: how can your experience of a film be complete when you don’t get to hear the voices of the actors? I see the value in the technique of dubbing for sub-literate cultures where not everyone can read English nor even their native language and the vast majority of the viewing audience only experience of their native language is when its spoken. Outside of those situations, particularly in the very literate lands of Europe, I can’t help but wonder why they still dub films? An actor’s performance is not complete without his voice: the subtle intonations, emphasis on phrases, all a part of the craft of acting. Seems dubbing in Europe is limiting audience appreciation of that very special aspect of “knowing” an actor or even a character. Additionally, a film showing the native tongue of the actors or the language in which the script is written coupled with country-specific subtitles provides the truly literate complete experience, no? Understandably, lots of viewers, even in the US, don’t like to me made to read subtitles. Sure, it does require a bit of an extra effort to see the action and emotion on the screen and read the dialogue at the same time. But, to me, that extra effort is what makes the entire experience of watching a film that is not in one’s native tongue worth it. End rant.
The first clip shows Gertrude and Richard at the stables. Richard is painting a white lollipop shape on a black horse. Obviously he’s trying to disguise the horse for some nefarious purpose, either to sell it someone or otherwise pawn it off as something it isn’t. He doesn’t hide what he’s doing from Gertrude, but, in fact, seems to take great pride in it. Without even knowing the exact circumstances, I can venture that he’s pulling a scam. And the fact that he’s taking such pride in it shows him to be that brand of colonist, who like present-day corporate moguls, will do whatever it takes to get ahead of a bottom line. Where colonists inked secret deals for land that wasn’t theirs and painted horses to make them appear what they weren’t, so present-day corporations ink deals over lives and resources they care little for and disguise it all under the coat of paint of creative accounting. Okay, that may be reading too much into it, and stretching the analogy way far, so let me reign it in (pun!).
Anyway, as we know from the biography of Gertrude Bell, she wasn’t as gung-ho on the colonial agenda as her peers, so it’s interesting to dissect what she makes of all this. We see Gertrude’s face change at the end of the interchange at the stable, but I’m not sure why. She may be taken aback by his charm, his confidence in telling the story of why he’s painting a horse, his cleverness over whatever scam he just pulled. Conversely, she may be taken aback that this man she’s drawn to is so comfortable pulling scams. Guess we’ll wait for the English version to find that out!
We know they were equally attracted to each other, but we also know that Gertrude safely guarded all the letters he wrote to her whereas he promptly destroyed all she wrote to him. Sure, he had a wife and therefore had more to lose were he to be discovered, but, still, the very act of destroying their correspondence says something about the kind of man he was. I’ve called him a rogue, before. And this clip of his propensity towards wickedness in horse trading certainly confirms it, no? Also, what we know about Damian Lewis is that he’s never played anyone all good or all bad. Much like the white stripe/blaze painted on a black horse, Damian Lewis never plays one color. Moreover, in whatever roles he takes, he’s bound to leave you guessing: is it a white stripe on a black horse or black paint nearly covering an otherwise white horse?
Next clip, we’re at a souk, and Richard seems, in the tradition of many a male suitor to come before and after him, to be carrying Gertrude’s shopping for the day. We already know a bit of the dialogue here. They sit and Gertrude tells Richard she’s not ready to go further in their relationship. Then Richard tells Gertrude he longs for her. They both seem frustrated and they both seem at odds in expressing their frustration to each other. It’s not a simple case of one doing all the desiring and all the chasing, while the other plays coy. Knowing what I know of their letters to each others as well as what I feel from this scene, the attraction is mutual and they both equally want things to progress. But, what I do sense from this scene is while they may want the same thing, they seem to want it for different reasons.
Even their expressions are a bit disjointed. When I was screencapping this and making the gifs, examining shots where I could get both of them in a flattering still, it was very difficult to find a shot where neither is blinking or grimacing. In scenes from other films I’ve capped and looked at this closely, that lack of synchronicity doesn’t always happen with two people in a scene, especially two people ostensibly heading towards becoming lovers. So my reductionist forensic fangirl-ness allowed me to see something very telling about these characters: they’re not at all on the same page.
Now, in the biography’s description of their love story, we know they never quite make it. So no spoilers there. But the fact only hinted at in the biography and never totally fleshed out is that they never quite jive even when they are together. This scene in the souk certainly captures the disconnect.
Why does all this matter, you ask? Why would we want to watch a couple not make it? Well, it matters to me because Damian Lewis is in the scene. Like, duh. But it should matter to non-fans too, because, in Queen of the Desert, between Charles Doughty Wylie and Gertrude Bell, we see a relationship between two equals who have expressed passionate feelings for each other, at least on paper, but, for a multitude of reasons (or perhaps for no reason at all?) never get together, two passionate people who are attracted to each other but somehow are never on the same page even in the times when they are together. It’s not love lost, or love constantly strained and put up against impossible obstacles, it’s more simply an attraction that in all its fire, somehow stalls. Sure, lots of things are in the way of them getting together. But even when they have the chances to be together, they stall. And the beauty is that you see this dynamic play out in subtle nuances of acting. Surely that alone is a reason real enough to search this film out when it hits our screens.