In the early thirties, in english territory, the hungarian directors found refuge in these lands, such is the case of Sándor Laszlo Kellner, known as Alexander Korda, as well as his brother, Zóltan, both fundamental for the revolutionary sound to be settle in the british film industry. Being the aforementioned decade also probably the best in terms of recognition of his film production, it is the present film that initiated those glorious five-year periods, and the first of his two collaborations with the legendary english actor, Charles Laughton, who in turn would be Oscar-winner for this memorable interpretation. The filmmaker adapts the life of the conspicuous monarch from the Tudor dynasty, and will take care of expressing his extensive and varied experience in the amatory field, exploring five of his six marital unions, highlighting among them Ana Bolena, Ana de Cleves, Katherine Howard, all the unions having dissimilar results, and always ending with the king every single time alone, with the whole kingdom being a witness of the marital life of its king, always pressing for a new marriage and begetting an heir. Referential film for british cinema, first to be nominated for Best Film in the then valuable Academy Awards, of the most notable works made by both the actor and the director.
We are informed that Henry VIII had six wives, Catherine de Aragon was the first, Ana Bolena succeeded her. We see the servants whispering about the king, executioners are getting ready to execute Bolena (Merle Oberon), they finish her, and Henry (Laughton) then marries Jane Seymour (Wendy Barrie). With her everything is going well, even conceive a child, heir to the throne, but she dies in childbirth, and the scion soon takes the same path. It is then that Henry focus his attention on Katherine Howard (Binnie Barnes), but it is with Ana de Cleves (Elsa Lanchester) with whom he marries for the fourth time, while games of seduction the monarch performs, thinks he is discreet, but the whole court, and even the town knows what happens. He ends, despite having some chemistry, in any way breaking his union with Ana de Cleves, marries Katherine, his fifth wife, and feels that his body is already beginning to age. In parallel, his wife has affairs with Thomas Culpeper (Robert Donat), an infidelity of which the whole court is aware, including the populace. The furtive situation harasses Culpeper, Henry is aware of what happens and immediately executes the traitors. By influence of Ana de Cleves, and pressure from the people, an aged Henry agrees to his sixth marriage, but finally he directs us a curious epigram.
Crucial years were for british cinema and for cinema world, the sound had arrived, it had came to stay, in the United States the mass production of sound films was already beginning, with a few exceptions, some old filmmakers who refused to take for finalized, finished a sacred time, the silent cinema. In that context, not a few foreign filmmakers would find in England the desired refuge to various circumstances from which they escaped, and Alexander Korda, Austro-Hungarian nationalized British, along with his brother Zoltan, put his collaboration so that, with historicist films, like the present, the sonorous revolution would be installed on the islands. In this feature film, we will see a review of the varied love adventures of the egregious Henry VIII, some vainities, others more significant, a version of his life that will give prominence to these amatoria avatars, leaving very relegated an eventual follow-up to political developments, which are not fully addressed -except some mention of negotiations with France, being Flanders offered to Henry-, because the love affairs are all in the film. In this recreation of the conspicuous Tudor's love life, some initial informative vignettes will give us pertinent scopes of history, while the music, not abundant in the picture but present at the beginning, gives us an idea of the playful and light tonic that we will appreciate in the movie. Then comes the scathing dialogue of the executioners, black humor as the executors debate on the best qualities to carry out an execution, kill a woman, not any woman, but a distinguished lady, a queen, Ana Bolena. Like those, there are many other sequences of humorous content, over which is based a presence of humor, because sharp and somewhat corrosive jokes are dispersed throughout the film, splashing with hilarity the footage.
The glittering star, Laughton, provides a decorated incarnation of the king, irascible, jocund, a good-natured air that permeates the entire film itself, with his changing mood, which varies according to the wife on duty that accompanies him, his six different marital adventures. The winner of the Oscar Laughton thus builds his character, a good-natured, round, energetic and funny king in his royal actions, with almost childlike dyes, the pinguid and regal Tudor capricious, libidinous, but also prey to the pressures of his people; it is a representation that nevertheless omits and leaves almost forgotten the characteristic of the personality of the real character, the love for the arts of Henry VIII, for literature -he was even a writer- naturally the famous painting by Hans Holbein the Younger was a reference for the construction of the personality of the cinematographic character. Given the approach to the human aspect that the film has, the aspect of reliable history has been left relegated, as was pointed out above, besides for example the detail of the bizarre final of the prince is omitted, no more is mentioned the son begotten with Jane Seymour, an ironic historical omission, this being a film with a historicist tendency. The picture is focused, naturally and as its title indicates, in the king's love life, with the whole kingdom knowing first-hand the royal infidelities, both those that Henry plays, and the ones in which he is a victim, a libidinous game in which the king's court will also have an active role. His marital life is therefore a national issue, almost a daily show, being the barber, one of the most common channels for him to learn about the feelings of the people, who longs for a male heir as much or more than the monarch himself and his court. However, again, Henry is the protagonist but focusing on his humanity, his pride, his humiliations, the vexations to his manhood, is an eminently human approach, the human being, the man behind the crown, after the king.
It is undeniably a classic of british cinema, both actor and director saw their reputations, and their careers, enlarged not a little after this film: the industry's greatest recognition, the Oscar, was granted for his characterization to Laughton, and to Korda, was to strengthen his position as one of the leading spearheads in the process of transition from silent to sound in England; in addition, there is the fact that this film was the first british work to be nominated for Best Film in the annual edition of the then valuable Academy Awards. The sound was barely reaching the cinema, the english cinema was, like the great majority of the world, assimilating the great change, the great novelty, were being crucial years for the consolidation of the sound revolution in british lands, and the Korda brothers helped an industry to adapt to the irreversible change, and to start taking advantage of the splendid magnitude of the resource. Thus, and as it is natural, in this film the musical accompaniment is meager, it was the logical thing, those were the first steps, but already it began the use of the sound in a professional way. It is a feature with rigor in its filming, a technically sumptuous movie, in which we find symmetry in its frames, as well as a camera that moves in equally rigorous travellings to go through the sober compositions of its frames. The ambience and the decoration of the period, relatively frugal, is somewhat austere, you can appreciate a relative absence of the royal pageantry, however it is a sober exercise, a sober mise-en-scène, it does not shine artistically, it does not overflow art, but it is a very serious cinematographic exercise in years of the dawn of sound movies in England. The approach in a certain comic key lightens the viewing of the film, it is maintained a guideline to document historic incidents, without due to these touches of hilarity, landing completely in a comedy, though. In the end there is a resource, a narrative license by the filmmaker, very consistent and coherent with the overall tone of the film, but for the time with a certain freshness and irreverence greater than in current days, Laughton, Henry, speaks directly to us, speaks direct to the camera, to the spectator, aims an ironic comment, resource therefore according to the general humor of many passages of the movie. Memorable and decorated film, referential within english cinema, a new cinematographic era was beginning to settle in the islands.
In the early thirties, in english territory, the hungarian directors found refuge in these lands, such is the case of Sándor Laszlo Kellner, known as Alexander Korda, as well as his brother, Zóltan, both fundamental for the revolutionary sound to be settle in the british film industry. Being the aforementioned decade also probably the best in terms of recognition of his film production, it is the present film that initiated those glorious five-year periods, and the first of his two collaborations with the legendary english actor, Charles Laughton, who in turn would be Oscar-winner for this memorable interpretation. The filmmaker adapts the life of the conspicuous monarch from the Tudor dynasty, and will take care of expressing his extensive and varied experience in the amatory field, exploring five of his six marital unions, highlighting among them Ana Bolena, Ana de Cleves, Katherine Howard, all the unions having dissimilar results, and always ending with the king every single time alone, with the whole kingdom being a witness of the marital life of its king, always pressing for a new marriage and begetting an heir. Referential film for british cinema, first to be nominated for Best Film in the then valuable Academy Awards, of the most notable works made by both the actor and the director.
We are informed that Henry VIII had six wives, Catherine de Aragon was the first, Ana Bolena succeeded her. We see the servants whispering about the king, executioners are getting ready to execute Bolena (Merle Oberon), they finish her, and Henry (Laughton) then marries Jane Seymour (Wendy Barrie). With her everything is going well, even conceive a child, heir to the throne, but she dies in childbirth, and the scion soon takes the same path. It is then that Henry focus his attention on Katherine Howard (Binnie Barnes), but it is with Ana de Cleves (Elsa Lanchester) with whom he marries for the fourth time, while games of seduction the monarch performs, thinks he is discreet, but the whole court, and even the town knows what happens. He ends, despite having some chemistry, in any way breaking his union with Ana de Cleves, marries Katherine, his fifth wife, and feels that his body is already beginning to age. In parallel, his wife has affairs with Thomas Culpeper (Robert Donat), an infidelity of which the whole court is aware, including the populace. The furtive situation harasses Culpeper, Henry is aware of what happens and immediately executes the traitors. By influence of Ana de Cleves, and pressure from the people, an aged Henry agrees to his sixth marriage, but finally he directs us a curious epigram.
Crucial years were for british cinema and for cinema world, the sound had arrived, it had came to stay, in the United States the mass production of sound films was already beginning, with a few exceptions, some old filmmakers who refused to take for finalized, finished a sacred time, the silent cinema. In that context, not a few foreign filmmakers would find in England the desired refuge to various circumstances from which they escaped, and Alexander Korda, Austro-Hungarian nationalized British, along with his brother Zoltan, put his collaboration so that, with historicist films, like the present, the sonorous revolution would be installed on the islands. In this feature film, we will see a review of the varied love adventures of the egregious Henry VIII, some vainities, others more significant, a version of his life that will give prominence to these amatoria avatars, leaving very relegated an eventual follow-up to political developments, which are not fully addressed -except some mention of negotiations with France, being Flanders offered to Henry-, because the love affairs are all in the film. In this recreation of the conspicuous Tudor's love life, some initial informative vignettes will give us pertinent scopes of history, while the music, not abundant in the picture but present at the beginning, gives us an idea of the playful and light tonic that we will appreciate in the movie. Then comes the scathing dialogue of the executioners, black humor as the executors debate on the best qualities to carry out an execution, kill a woman, not any woman, but a distinguished lady, a queen, Ana Bolena. Like those, there are many other sequences of humorous content, over which is based a presence of humor, because sharp and somewhat corrosive jokes are dispersed throughout the film, splashing with hilarity the footage.
The glittering star, Laughton, provides a decorated incarnation of the king, irascible, jocund, a good-natured air that permeates the entire film itself, with his changing mood, which varies according to the wife on duty that accompanies him, his six different marital adventures. The winner of the Oscar Laughton thus builds his character, a good-natured, round, energetic and funny king in his royal actions, with almost childlike dyes, the pinguid and regal Tudor capricious, libidinous, but also prey to the pressures of his people; it is a representation that nevertheless omits and leaves almost forgotten the characteristic of the personality of the real character, the love for the arts of Henry VIII, for literature -he was even a writer- naturally the famous painting by Hans Holbein the Younger was a reference for the construction of the personality of the cinematographic character. Given the approach to the human aspect that the film has, the aspect of reliable history has been left relegated, as was pointed out above, besides for example the detail of the bizarre final of the prince is omitted, no more is mentioned the son begotten with Jane Seymour, an ironic historical omission, this being a film with a historicist tendency. The picture is focused, naturally and as its title indicates, in the king's love life, with the whole kingdom knowing first-hand the royal infidelities, both those that Henry plays, and the ones in which he is a victim, a libidinous game in which the king's court will also have an active role. His marital life is therefore a national issue, almost a daily show, being the barber, one of the most common channels for him to learn about the feelings of the people, who longs for a male heir as much or more than the monarch himself and his court. However, again, Henry is the protagonist but focusing on his humanity, his pride, his humiliations, the vexations to his manhood, is an eminently human approach, the human being, the man behind the crown, after the king.
It is undeniably a classic of british cinema, both actor and director saw their reputations, and their careers, enlarged not a little after this film: the industry's greatest recognition, the Oscar, was granted for his characterization to Laughton, and to Korda, was to strengthen his position as one of the leading spearheads in the process of transition from silent to sound in England; in addition, there is the fact that this film was the first british work to be nominated for Best Film in the annual edition of the then valuable Academy Awards. The sound was barely reaching the cinema, the english cinema was, like the great majority of the world, assimilating the great change, the great novelty, were being crucial years for the consolidation of the sound revolution in british lands, and the Korda brothers helped an industry to adapt to the irreversible change, and to start taking advantage of the splendid magnitude of the resource. Thus, and as it is natural, in this film the musical accompaniment is meager, it was the logical thing, those were the first steps, but already it began the use of the sound in a professional way. It is a feature with rigor in its filming, a technically sumptuous movie, in which we find symmetry in its frames, as well as a camera that moves in equally rigorous travellings to go through the sober compositions of its frames. The ambience and the decoration of the period, relatively frugal, is somewhat austere, you can appreciate a relative absence of the royal pageantry, however it is a sober exercise, a sober mise-en-scène, it does not shine artistically, it does not overflow art, but it is a very serious cinematographic exercise in years of the dawn of sound movies in England. The approach in a certain comic key lightens the viewing of the film, it is maintained a guideline to document historic incidents, without due to these touches of hilarity, landing completely in a comedy, though. In the end there is a resource, a narrative license by the filmmaker, very consistent and coherent with the overall tone of the film, but for the time with a certain freshness and irreverence greater than in current days, Laughton, Henry, speaks directly to us, speaks direct to the camera, to the spectator, aims an ironic comment, resource therefore according to the general humor of many passages of the movie. Memorable and decorated film, referential within english cinema, a new cinematographic era was beginning to settle in the islands.
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