Queen was baffled by grief over Diana,film suggests

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

Stephen Frears' ''The Queen'' was screened at the Venice Film Festival yesterday, giving journalists the first chance to see the eagerly-awaited dramatisation of the turbulent 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 the then newly-elected Blair's role in the crisis.

With her hair dyed silver and her 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.'' The film's makers do not claim to have exactly duplicated the moment in history. But they say extensive research, including speaking to sources close to the royal family, has resulted in a dramatisation that is as faithful as possible to the events and protagonists.

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.

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