Grace by Thilo Wydra

Author:Thilo Wydra
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Published: 2014-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

The Swan

(1956)

I want to be a queen.

—Grace Kelly, as Princess Alexandra

Some of the films that Grace Kelly made during her short acting career seem to foreshadow, in an almost fateful way, the actual occurrences in her life. Again and again, she had to choose between duty and feelings (High Noon; The Country Girl; The Swan) or, sometimes by extension, between two men (Mogambo; Dial M for Murder; The Country Girl; The Swan; High Society). Again and again, she had to maintain her composure, to remain committed to a moral or ethical stance, or to assume responsibility. Like a common thread, there is a similar conflict in almost every film she made—one that relates to a decisive, existential life decision that had both moral as well as societal consequences.

Perhaps the clearest example, The Swan anticipated Grace Kelly’s later life as the Princess of Monaco. It is a uniquely prophetic film.

Her final film, High Society, also mirrors events in her life, although it seems to align more closely with times prior to her engagement with Prince Rainier, as opposed to Charles Vidor’s The Swan, in which Grace Kelly portrays Princess Alexandra, daughter of Princess Beatrix (Jessie Royce Landis, who had already played Grace’s mother once, in To Catch a Thief). Alexandra is a woman who must choose between two men. Even though she really does not have the freedom to choose, she finds herself stuck between her tutor Dr. Nicholas Agi (Louis Jourdan) and his Royal Majesty Crown Prince Albert (Alec Guinness). Albert decides to visit the castle of his cousin Beatrix for several days, and Beatrix’s greatest hope is that Albert will discover Alexandra’s virtues and ask her to marry him. This would allow the family line to continue and would preserve the castle. And Alexandra would become the wife of the future king. However, as an inconvenience for everyone, Albert only cares about ball sports, duck hunting, and sleeping in. The increasingly despairing Beatrix then puts together a plan to turn Albert’s attention to Alexandra. The mother asks her daughter to invite the court tutor Dr. Agi to the evening ball being held in Crown Prince Albert’s honor. The idea is that this will make Albert jealous. Up until this point, Albert has only said that Alexandra “was like an icicle, and I was like a fish.”249 This humorous comparison reflects the “cool blonde” image long associated with Grace Kelly. On the other hand, Nicholas Agi, whom Alexandra invited to the court ball in person, interprets the invitation as a returning of his deep feelings for her. And he will soon be proven correct.

For the first time, completely unexpectedly, the young princess has discovered love, specifically for the modest and charming court tutor Agi, who has long been in love with the stylish, unapproachable, somewhat childish princess. However, the circumstances require that she marry Prince Albert and that she learn to love him—just as she would learn to love Prince Rainier. When Agi learns of this plan he leaves the castle, utterly heartbroken.

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