A Royal Affair

By this point in MADSNESS we've had gangster Mads, cannibal Mads, villainous Mads, ripped Mads, mentally ill Mads, saintly Mads and baby Mads. A ROYAL AFFAIR gives us revolutionary Mads.

Based on one of the most remarkable true stories in Danish history, A ROYAL AFFAIR follows Johann Friedrich Struensee, a German physician who arrives at the Danish court to treat the mentally unstable King Christian VII. As Struensee gains the king's trust, he also captures the attention of the neglected young queen, Caroline Matilda. Their secret affair soon becomes inseparable from something even more dangerous: an attempt to transform an entire nation.

Armed with the radical ideas of the Enlightenment, Struensee introduces sweeping reforms that challenge the power of the aristocracy, abolish torture, expand freedom of the press and drag eighteenth-century Denmark towards the modern world. Unsurprisingly, the people benefiting from the old order aren't especially enthusiastic.

What begins as a historical romance gradually becomes a gripping political thriller about power, idealism and the price of trying to change history. Mads Mikkelsen gives one of the most quietly commanding performances of his career, playing a man whose greatest weapon isn't violence but intelligence.

Nominated for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, A ROYAL AFFAIR announced Mads as one of Europe's great leading men. It's elegant, intelligent and proof that real history is often far more dramatic than fiction.