Queen of the Desert

Dir: Werner Herzog

2015

****

I adore the films of Werner Herzog and have been frustrated by the decline of production in recent years. He hadn’t made a feature film since 2009’s My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done? and then suddenly two come at once. His documentaries have also slowed a bit, but they continue to be strong and full of Herzog wonder, his feature films however, have been a little puzzling to say the least. I enjoyed Queen of the Desert and Salt and Fire that came out a year later, but my goodness they’re totally different films. Salt and Fire feels more like a Herzog film but with some of his magic missing. Queen of the Desert is a great film, epic but without any of the clichés associated with such a film. It doesn’t feel much like a Herzog film, which is slightly disappointing if I’m being honest, but I still enjoyed it very much. We all know the story of T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) but few people know of writer, archaeologist, explorer, cartographer and political officer Gertrude Bell. Born into a wealthy family, Bell’s grandfather was the ironmaster Sir Isaac Lowthian Bell, an industrialist and a Liberal Member of Parliament. His role in British policy-making exposed Bell at a young age to international matters and most likely encouraged her curiosity for the world, and her later involvement in international politics. She displayed a thirst for adventure from a young age and without a mother figure (her mother died when she was four) it was never discouraged – her father and uncle doing quite the opposite. Bell's uncle, Sir Frank Lascelles, was British minister at Tehran, Persia. In May 1892, after leaving Oxford, Bell traveled to Persia to visit him. She spent much of the next decade travelling around the world, mountaineering in Switzerland and developing a passion for archaeology and languages. She had become fluent in Arabic, Persian, French and German as well as also speaking Italian and Turkish. In 1899, Bell again went to the Middle East. She visited Palestine and Syria that year and in 1900, on a trip from Jerusalem to Damascus, she became acquainted with the Druze living in Jabal al-Druze. She traveled across Arabia six times during the next 12 years and played a major role in establishing and helping administer the modern state of Iraq, utilising her unique perspective from her travels and relations with tribal leaders throughout the Middle East. During her lifetime she was highly esteemed and trusted by British officials and given an immense amount of power for a woman at the time. She has been described as one of the few representatives of His Majesty's Government remembered by the Arabs with anything resembling affection. She is still remembered fondly in the middle-east to this day. Absolutely the sort of fascinating person Herzog is attracted to, but the period is new to him, not that he’s ever had a problem with it, but there is something rather un-Herzogian about the film. A big part of the film deals with her romance with embassy employee, Henry Cadogan. Their romance did not last long as her father considered him bad company for their daughter and forbid them to marry. Cadogan committed suicide as a result and although Bell found later love with Maj. Charles Doughty-Wylie, it was her relationship with Cadogan that always stayed with her. This isn’t particularly well documented in real life and a few of her previous relationships are left unmentioned but it is Cadogan’s suicide that is concentrated on due to the fact that Bell’s death – from an overdose of sleeping pills - is often suspected as being intentional. It’s a fascinating film, it may not sound like I enjoyed it but I did, it’s just that I watch Werner Herzog films for two reasons, firstly because I know it is always going to be interesting and secondly because it will be full of Herzogisums. It’s interesting, but those special scenes that could only come from the mind of Werner are few and far between. His films are unlike any other directors so I suppose I view and judge them in a different way. There was a wonderful moment that included an unexpected vulture and rather shocked and speechless Nicole Kidman but I suppose, as much as I would have loved it, a scene with a talking lizard just wouldn’t have been appropriate. It’s a brilliant modern epic about a remarkable historical figure that people should be more aware of. It’s beautiful, well directed and well performed, especially by Nicole Kidman in the lead role.