Royal Films for a Royal Wedding

Buckingham Palace Balcony, copyright iStock Photo

 This coming week is the royal wedding of Prince William to Kate Middleton.  Although I was a young girl when Prince Charles and Lady Diana married, I still remember the mania that surrounded their wedding, the broadcast on TV, and that amazing dress that they crushed inside that carriage.  If we all wanted a view of a real-life fairy tale, well we got it with that wedding!

Here we are some thirty years later, ready to watch Charles and Diana's handsome son get married, and I'd like to disagree with all the new reports I've been hearing and say that yes, we Yanks are seriously excited about the wedding!  Okay, so I haven't heard many folks at work talking about the wedding, but we've been too busy to chat about it.  I do, however, think that this wedding serves as a splash of positive news that we all so desperately need.  How about we sidestep the mangy Donald Trump running for president and rising gas prices news to focus on something fun for once?!?

In preparation for the big day, I've noticed a lot of "royalty" themed or centered films.  In fact, the new Lifetime film "William and Kate" appeared on cable this past week. Said royal love story knock off film was dubbed as "pond scum" by one British reviewer on CNN, while another on ABC called it "wooden, at best."  (Check out this funny news spot "Bad Royal Movies" from ABC News.)  Yes, I watched it and have to agree with the ABC critic that "It's so bad, it's good."  Yes, it's cheesy.  Yes, it's unbelievable. And yes, you'll roll your eyes and wonder how people get away with writing this stuff!  In the end though, I will admit to being thoroughly entertained.  In all it's cheesiness, I say pony up to the cheese bar and enjoy!

Based around true events from the courtship of William and Kate, the film starts at St. Andrew's University in Scotland, where the two met at school while studying art history.  The two were friends there, but soon began seeing one another on the side.  As reported in the news, they had some on and off times, which are also depicted in the film.  Kate used these to her advantage though, and showed William that she could have a life without him, which in turn attracted him to her--you know, the whole "let him chase you" theory.  Well, the rest was/is history.

Honestly, check it out for yourself.  In the spirit of all things royal this week, I liked it and had a cheesy good time with the fairytale!  For more information on the film and show times, check out their "official" site at "William & Kate Movie" .  Here's the preview as well:

Besides this Lifetime dramatization of the courtship for William and Kate, there seems to be a lot of films about or centered on royalty.  Here is a short list of films and television shows I came up with:

The King's Speech

Young Victoria

The Queen

The Tudors

The Other Boelyn Girl

Elizabeth:  The Golden Age

Elizabeth

Victoria and Albert

The Prince and Me

Ever After

This isn't an exhaustive list, obviously, but a short jump off point for royal films and television.  There are other royal films based around royalty of France, Russia, etc. that I could include here.  Also, I really love Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett for its look at cathedral building.  We can say that if the number of films and television shows based around royalty, whether real or fictitious, doesn't prove that we're all still a bit intrigued and in love with the idea of royalty, then I don't know what does.  Royalty is an interesting subject, and for all it's modern complexities, I think we're all a little drawn in by the magic and mystique of it all.

What say you?  Do you have royal wedding mania?