Movies in 2026 201

 

Queen of the Desert (Werner Herzog, 2015)

This is a film, Werner Herzog's Queen of the Desert, that I really wanted to like, but absolutely didn't. Herzog is a director I like a lot - and Gertrude Bell is a character who I find fascinating - and it's certainly a period and a part of the world that I love - but this was just a joyless slog to get through. I think you can definitely be too referential  in your handling of a subject (in a much less important way, I think for a long time I fell into the same process with my epics book, with the result that I sucked all the life out of it). Please read books about Gertrude Bell - and by Gertrude Bell - but feel free to duck this movie.