Gandhi, A Man For All Seasons, The English Patient, Chariots of Fire and
Slumdog Millionaire all British films that won Best Picture at the
Oscars over the years. But the first ever British film to be nominated
for Best Picture was at the 1934 ceremony and that film was The Private
Life of Henry VIII. The film's plot is basically self-explanatory, as it
is about Henry's relationship with his wives, well most of them anyway.
To just give you an example of how historically accurate the
film is the opening subtitles tell us that - 'Henry VIII had six wives,
Catherine of Aragon was the first but her story is of no particular
interest she was a respectable woman so Henry divorced her'. From there
we get what is basically Henry VIII: The Edited highlights. The start of
the film sees Merle Oberon as Anne Boleyn getting ready for her
execution like she was getting ready to go for a good night out. Charles
Laughton's Oscar winning performance as Henry starts off as he barks at
some of his staff and then flirts with his new young wife Jane Seymour.
After Boleyn's head is chopped off we flash forward 18 months were
Seymour has given birth to a son while Henry is hunting but has died
before he gets back. The main crux of the film though is about Catherine
Howard, who is one of the more obscure of Henry's wives, and her
ambition to be queen despite her having a relationship with one of
Henry's courtsmen. But first Anne of Cleves the famous ugly wife, who
isn't actually ugly but makes herself unattractive to Henry so she can
re-marry her first love. Then Howard gets her claws into Henry but it's
not long before she gets her head chopped off for her affair. There's
just about five minutes of screen time left for Henry to finally get a
'good wife' in Catherine Parr who is first seen as Elizabeth and
Edward's nanny and she begins to nanny Henry into his final years the
last shot being one of Henry with the infamous chicken leg in his mouth.
What
an auspicious start to the British film entries into the Academy
Shortlist? A film full of historical inaccuracies and bawdy behaviour
which gave everybody the image of a fat Henry VIII who loved to shove
chicken legs in his mouth. As Henry, Charles Laughton earned his only
Oscar and this propelled him and legendary British director Alexander
Korda to fame. This is a very well-produced and well scripted film but
there are some lines today which would cause anarchy but said by Henry
they are meant to be archaic, there's a nice line about North Americans
being savages which I'm sure the American audiences just loved. At just
over 90 minutes it's by no means a historical epic but whatever it is
this was the first time that the Brits could be proud of a film that did
so well across the pond.
No comments:
Post a Comment