New British movie The Queen has been watched by almost 1 million people in France since it opened there two months ago. Despite being a British movie, it has been watched in Britain by just 1.3 million people since it opened here THREE months ago.
The movie is so popular in France that French publishing house Scali has commissioned a biography of the Queen written Marc Roche who is that rarest of things - a French Anglophile - who is the London correspondent of Le Monde (The World) newspaper.
This shows that despite being a republic France - like the United States - is fascinated by the British Monarchy.
France falls in love with the Queen again
Tim Walker, Mandrake Editor, Sunday Telegraph
10/12/2006
Helen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth II in the British movie about the Royal family in the week following Princess Diana's death. The actress has now played both Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Elizabeth II.
France, the republic that used "Madame Guillotine" to dispatch its own royal family, has reignited its love affair with monarchy – the British monarchy.
The Queen, the British film starring Helen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth II, has been watched by close to 900,000 French men and women since opening in Paris two months ago.
It is so successful that Scali, the French publishing house, has commissioned a biography of the Queen – and Buckingham Palace courtiers have signalled their approval.
The film, directed by Stephen Frears, is the talk of the French chattering classes and Paris café society. France's renewed interest in the British monarchy means The Queen has already taken more than €5 million (£3.6 million) at the box office.
The film opened in Britain in September and has been seen by about 1.3 million people in three months. It has been viewed by more than 850,000 people in republican France in just two months.
The Scali book is being written by Marc Roche, the London correspondent of Le Monde.
Roche is a self-confessed Anglophile and a friend of Simon Walker, the Queen's former director of communications, and is a regular at royal functions.
He declined to discuss the book this weekend, but Buckingham Palace welcomed his interest and royal aides are expected to assist him.
"Rest assured that HMQ's people will do what they can for the entente cordiale," a senior courtier said.
"You will appreciate that we have a rather jaundiced view of certain British journalists, but being a Frenchman he'll probably find more doors open to him over here."
The French press have given The Queen rave reviews. Paris Match, the influential magazine, said: "The Queen is first and foremost a subtle and moving portrait of a complex woman." Even the communist daily newspaper Humanité described the film as "captivating".
Damien Golla, from Pathé, the Paris-based independent film production and distribution company which is marketing the film in France, is astonished but thrilled by its success. "Given that it is not a major blockbuster and it concerns matters which are uniquely British, we are, to say the least, delighted with these figures. We have taken €5.1million so far. It demonstrates that we have taken your Queen very much to our hearts," he said.
France was ruled by a monarchy until, after the French Revolution, a republic was declared in 1792. The following year the deposed King Louis XVI and his wife, Marie Antoinette, were executed. The monarchy was restored briefly in the 19th century but France returned to being a republic after the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71.
In the past, the French have shown an interest in the British Royal family. They warmed to the young Queen Elizabeth when she came to the throne in 1952. Later, French magazines and newspapers were fascinated by the late Diana, Princess of Wales. However, for decades, the nation has been largely indifferent to the British institution.
A leading French literary agent said: "Our magazines have long recognised that stories and pictures of the British Royal family sell, but the film made it clear how we now have an appetite for intelligent, respectful presentations of [the Queen's] life."
---------------------
The Queen
British director Stephen Frears's intimate docu-drama about the Royal Family in the week following Princess Diana's death premieres at this year's Venice Film Festival
--------
The film stars Helen Mirren - who recently won an Emmy Award for her portrayal of Elizabeth I...
-----------
... and James Cromwell (that's an inappropriate name) as her husband, Prince Phillip
----------
Central to the story are the Queen's strained relations with her son, the Prince of Wales...
------------
... and her unwillingness to join the public display of grief, despite Tony Blair's warning that the monarchy will be jeopardised if she does not give in to spin
telegraph.co.uk
CKA Moderator 
an early Christmas present....hope the bastard was buried with some sun tan lotion....he is going to need it.
CKA Uber 
