The Royal Road

IMDb RATING

6.7/10

201

YOUR RATING

Official poster from The Royal Road, a film by Jenni Olson.

Play trailer1:56

1 Video

15 Photos

Documentary History

A cinematic essay in defense of remembering, The Royal Road offers up a primer on the Spanish colonization of California and the Mexican American War alongside intimate reflections on nostal... Read allA cinematic essay in defense of remembering, The Royal Road offers up a primer on the Spanish colonization of California and the Mexican American War alongside intimate reflections on nostalgia, butch identity, the pursuit of unavailable women and Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo - all... Read allA cinematic essay in defense of remembering, The Royal Road offers up a primer on the Spanish colonization of California and the Mexican American War alongside intimate reflections on nostalgia, butch identity, the pursuit of unavailable women and Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo - all against a contemplative backdrop of 16mm urban California landscapes, and featuring a voi... Read all

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.7/10

201

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 4 wins & 1 nomination

Quotes
Tony Kushner: Everything new is better than everything old. 'The bad new things instead of the good old things,' wrote that great dialectical playwright, poet and theorist Bertolt Brecht. I love the rigor of that challenge. To be able to risk the Satanic temptation and a retreat backwards towards what's easy, familiar and safe - the remembered past which is always misremembered. To always be on guard against nostalgia. To be able to see the future in the bad new things.
Jenni Olson: Aside from introducing the burden of Tony Kushner's disapproval into my life, this speech has prompted me to reflect at length and somewhat obsessively, on my aversion to the bad new things and my affection for the old. To this day, I suffer from a compulsion to defend my overly intense attachment to the past.

Connections
References Double Indemnity (1944)

User reviews1

Review

Featured review

8/10

An impactful piece of art

The Royal Road is a captivating film. It delivers the beauty of San Francisco as known by its residents. The voiceover informs, critiques and honors the history of California while simultaneously providing access to the narrator's inner thoughts and musings.

I really enjoyed this film. Thanks Jenni!

***seen via Mubi***