Queen baffled by grief over Diana, film shows

VENICE, Sept 2 (Reuters) Britain's Queen Elizabeth was unable to comprehend the public's grief at Princess Diana's death in 1997 but was finally convinced to cast aside royal protocol by Prime Minister Tony Blair, a new film shows.

Stephen Frears' ''The Queen'' was screened at the Venice Film Festival today, giving journalists the first chance to see the eagerly-awaited reconstruction of the dramatic days following the high-speed car crash in Paris that killed Diana.

Mirren, who has just won an Emmy for her title role in the mini-series ''Elizabeth I'', takes on the unusual task of portraying a living monarch in the film, which also explores newly-elected Blair's role in the crisis.

With her hair dyed silver and voice trained to match that of the monarch, Mirren gives a convincing performance full of humour and sympathy for a woman struggling to abandon the stiff upper lip she believed her people wanted her to display.

''There's been a change, some shift in values,'' Mirren's queen says during a conversation with her mother at Balmoral in Scotland. She also contemplates abdicating the throne.

''I don't think I'll ever understand what happened this summer,'' she adds towards the end of the film in a conversation with Blair. ''I've never been hated like that before. I prefer to keep my feelings to myself. That's all I've ever known.'' Frears explores the relationship between Blair and the long-serving monarch, and suggests the prime minister saw her as a mother figure. Blair's wife, Cherie, is far less sympathetic to royalty.

In the days after Diana's death headlines were dominated by the backlash against the royal family caused by what people saw as its indifference to the hugely popular princess.

INTIMATE HUMOUR The audience at the press screening applauded the film at the end and enjoyed scenes of intimacy between the queen, her husband Prince Philip, her son Prince Charles and her mother.

''Move over cabbage,'' Philip says as the couple go to bed, and the queen dons a woolly dressing gown and clutches a hot water bottle on the night Diana is killed.

Philip, played by U.S. actor James Cromwell, enjoys some hilarious lines. Furious at the idea of holding a public funeral for Diana, he calls the invited guests ''a chorus line of soap stars and homosexuals''.

Michael Sheen reprises the part of Blair which he also played in the television drama ''The Deal''.

The prime minister, himself riding on a wave of popularity at the time as the queen's ratings plummeted, is portrayed as someone genuinely concerned for the royal family.

In contrast his former spokesman, Alastair Campbell, is a cynical operator seeking always to win Blair new fans.

Throwing the narrative forward, the final scene shows the queen handing Blair a stern warning that his standing in the eyes of the public will not be as high forever.

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