A blockbuster episode of ‘The Crown’, ‘Coronation’ marred by the commentators. Every time I wonder why the commentators talk so much, they no longer know the value of silence in the face of events awash with things to hear and see: investiture, anointing, ancient rites, music, carriages and balconies . Rai1, to name just one example, had a studio crowded with people and sent four to London, Marco Varvello alone would have been enough, who knows how to tell these events well.
But maybe there’s an unacknowledged reason, but there it is. That doesn’t mean overplaying the ceremony to seem more important than the ceremony itself or being eyewitnesses to the use of recycled clothing. No, these are psychological or sociological trifles. No, we’re talking about everything to break the interdict: The two main actors of this series finale were not up to par. King Charles and Queen Camilla are utterly devoid of charisma, that invincible grace that allows them to exert strong superiority over others with liturgical impersonality. The English royals without Elizabeth are worldly, they can only deal with charm or popularity (“close to the people”), as the stone guest Lady Diana had already demonstrated.
Despite the abundance of words, television has shown us that protocol alone is not enough, that the sacramental origin of power is a distant memory. If holiness in the exercise of power is to become fiction, then the acting has to be of the highest caliber, the acting has to surpass “The Crown”. Perhaps it was necessary to focus immediately on William and Kate, to have the courage to adapt the monarchy to the fictional rituals of our time, to choose a less obsequious direction than that of the BBC (he broke off at moments that some have caused could be awkwardness, like getting out of the carriage).
As always, the convention is concerned neither with essences nor with substances, but with functions, and is willing to exchange one form for another (she who is the very soul of substitution). So in the end the most contemporary of them all seemed to be Harry, the outcast, the outcast, a piece of «Bridgerton».