End of an Era: Queen Elizabeth II (1926-2022) Jean-Luc Godard (1930-2022)

The Queen (2006)

In the wake of a national tragedy, the prime minister and royal family find themselves quietly at odds.

London -  Queen Elizabeth II and Jean-Luc Godard, two individuals born before WW2 and immensely influenced our world in completely different ways, have passed away. The Queen's state funeral took place at Westminster Abbey on Monday, 19th of September, attended by many heads of state and foreign dignitaries, including US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden. Tom Cruise had also, reportedly, been invited to the funeral. 

Godard was one of the most influential directors in film history. Moving boundaries of filmmaking beyond people's imagination, he changed Cinema forever.  Giving birth to a new movement in films, the French New Wave, Godard was a master of juxtaposing baffling philosophical and political ideas into visual imagery that set new thoughts and ideas into motion. 

"Whoever had the honor to meet the Queen faced similar challenges from a world not familiar to us, as shown with humor in Stephen Frears film “The Queen”: when and how to step forward, not to show your back, only to take her hand if she offers it, how to perform a curtsy - and not to speak before she does. In film this is funny, in real life it occupies you so much that you can hardly focus on what you actually want to say. When Lewis Hamilton broke the rules, she told him: “No, you speak that way first, and I’ll speak this way, and then I’ll come back to you.” In my case, she seemed more interested in the horses of the Spanish Riding school of Vienna. But a meeting with the Queen is the event itself - like meeting the Pope -, the conversation is symbolic. The reason to meet her has been vetted before and needs no further words," states Jaka Bizijl, Chairman of the Cinema for Peace Foundation. 

Queen Elizabeth's time as head of the state was characterized by the decolonization of the British Empire and the subsequent development of post-imperial relationships across the Commonwealth of Nations. During her unprecedented seventy-year reign, she visited every country in the Commonwealth, with the exception of Cameroon and Rwanda (who joined the association in 1995 and 2009 respectively).

As Queen of the UK and 14 other realms as well as the head of the 54-nation commonwealth she had enormous influence, although she held no real power. Instead, as the monarchy evolved over hundreds of years, the ruler's role has become largely symbolic. In the present political structure of the UK, the monarch remains the head of the British state and represents the United Kingdom on the national and international stage. However, the head of government is the Prime Minister and the monarch has to remain strictly neutral with respect to political matters.

However, an investigation conducted by Guardian in 2021 revealed the secretive power of the Queen’s consent, whereby the monarch had been provided with the advance sight of draft laws and invited to approve them. According to the investigation, the queen used the arcane procedure to lobby the government to change a draft law in order to conceal her private wealth from the public for decades. Such findings place doubt on the state of democracy in the UK and the power the monarch actually entails in the country.

"Stability" and "continuity" are the words often used to describe the role of the monarchy in the UK, and the political instability and the number of prime ministers the UK has had over the last 10 years have avoided the question: is royalty legitimate in a democratic world?

With the queen having served as an important symbol for the UK in the international arena, the challenge for the country now would be to uphold and deepen diplomatic alliances in order to maintain its relevance on the international stage. With the recent change in government, the rising economic crisis in the country, and now the death of their queen, concerns rise over the stability of the country. Liz Truss and King Charles are now in charge of the English people and the future of a democratic Commonwealth - which is also a barrier against the new axis of non-democratic imperialism: Russia and China. Nothing will be as ever before.

Le Petit Soldat by Jean-Luc Godard critiqued The Algerian War, depicting a raw and unembellished portrayal of torture used on citizens in times of war.