Queen of the Desert
Queen of the Desert is true story of the life of British explorer, writer, and adventurer, Gertrude Bell at the dawn of the twentieth century. The movie chronicles Bell's life from her early twenties till her death.
1966, Hammersmith, London, England, UK
19 April 1978, Palo Alto, California, USA
20 December 1952, Taunton, Somerset, England, UK
31 August 1992, London, England, UK
1 August 1946, Portsmouth, England, UK
6 June 1986, Casablanca, Morocco
April 26, 2017
This may be Werner Herzog's most conventional film, but its mostly untold true story knows what it means for a woman to choose a life of adventure and intellect.April 13, 2017
Bell was an extraordinary figure, tailor-made for a dazzling presence like Kidman, but Werner Herzog, directing his own script, unwisely structures Bell's story around her intimate relationships with men.April 06, 2017
Even the stodgiest biopic would be redeemed by Mr. Herzog's eye. The shots that track Bell into her meetings with Arab leaders may have you catching your breath.April 20, 2017
A strongly conventional film that ends up sinking into irreparable lethargy. [Full review in Spanish]April 28, 2017
... offers a half-hearted examination of colonialism and pre-war British foreign policy, although much of the context becomes lost in a film that turns rambling and tedious when it should be at its most suspenseful.April 13, 2017
The result is a well-made invitation to nod off.April 07, 2017
A bland departure from the director's normally madcap norm.April 26, 2017
Romantic longing has never really been part of Herzog's cinematic vocabulary (love in his films typically looks like manic obsession), which may explain why some of it is more stiff than emotionally moving.April 13, 2017
The story is mostly formless and, as a result, rather disorienting.April 07, 2017
Despite Kidman's best efforts, almost nothing clicks on an emotional level, and the movie passes as slowly as sand through an hourglass.April 14, 2017
As stunningly picturesque as all of this undeniably proves to be, Queen of the Desert is a barren emotional quagmire, Bell's incredible story deserving of so much more than this movie sadly proves to be willing to offer.April 07, 2017
An emotionally empty, thematically ill-defined, and listless affair. It is never able to communicate the complexity of the woman at its center.