Queen for a thousand days
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Queen for a thousand days |
| Original title | Anne of the Thousand Days |
| Country of production | Great Britain |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1969 |
| length | 145 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Charles Jarrott |
| script |
Bridget Boland John Hale Richard Sokolove |
| production | Hal B. Wallis |
| music | Georges Delerue |
| camera | Arthur Ibbetson |
| cut | Richard Marden |
| occupation | |
| |
Queen for a Thousand Days is a feature film by the British - Canadian director Charles Jarrott from 1969. The historical drama, which is based on a play by Maxwell Anderson , was produced by the American Hal B. Wallis .
action
England, in 1536 : The English King Henry VIII receives the death sentence for his second wife Anna Boleyn , convicted of adultery and high treason. In a flashback, he remembers the beginning of their time together. Heinrich is dissatisfied with his deeply religious wife Katharina von Aragon , who cannot bear a male heir for him. The two only have one daughter, Maria, who later becomes Maria I of England. He has an affair with Maria Boleyn , the daughter of his courtier Thomas Boleyn . But then the regent notices Maria's younger, eighteen-year-old sister Anna at a court ball, who has just returned from her training at the French royal court. Anna Boleyn is in a relationship with the son of the Earl of Northumberland and is hoping to get permission to marry him. King Henry is fascinated by her beauty and asks Prime Minister Cardinal Wolsey to break the bond. When Anna learns of this news, she falls into a fit of rage and blames Wolsey and the English king for the end of their relationship with her lover. After Heinrich's clumsy attempt to win Anna's favor, she openly teaches him that she sees him as depraved and vengeful and that he loves in the same way that he eats - with loud noises and little delicacy.
Although she is cool about the king's advances due to her disgust for him and her not-yet-gone anger at their broken bond, she is becoming more and more intoxicated with the power that the king's love could bring her. She tells her brother that power is more exciting than love and that the king has more of it than any other man. By taking advantage of her favorable position at court, she continually undermines the influence of Cardinal Wolsey, who initially dismisses the king's affection for Anna Boleyn as a simple infatuation. When King Henry VIII urged Anna again to become his mistress , she replied that she would never give birth to an illegitimate child. Since the longed-for male heir to the throne has not yet been found in his marriage to Katharina von Aragon, Heinrich is considering, more than ever, to cast off his wife and marry Anna. Anna is amazed at this unforeseen turn and promises the king that under the circumstances she would not spurn him. Cardinal Wolsey suspects the political consequences a divorce with Katharina would have and tries to change the king's mind. However, Henry VIII does not listen to his advisor.
Cardinal Wolsey does not succeed in obtaining the Pope's consent to a divorce with Catherine of Aragon, which Anna Boleyn attributes to King Henry on Wolsey's inability. The cardinal is then dismissed from his royal service and the city palace that he once lived in is given to Anna as a gift. Surrounded by the pomp, the young woman realizes that she has fallen in love with Henry VIII and they both give themselves up to each other for the first time. When Anna Boleyn becomes pregnant, the king secretly marries her. The new wife of Henry VIII receives a glamorous coronation ceremony, but the population on the street only pays homage to Katharina, boos Anna and insults her as a whore. The marriage leads to the secession of England from the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Church with Henry as head is installed. Months later, Anna Boleyn and their daughter, Princess Elizabeth , do not get the male heir to the throne they had hoped for. From this point onwards, the marriage between Anna and Heinrich cooled noticeably and Lady Jane Seymour , one of Anne's ladies-in-waiting, caught the king's attention. When Anne Boleyn discovered the king's liaison, she banished Jane Seymour from the royal court and mocked that she had the face of a sheepishly smiling sheep, but not the manners.
During a riot by Sir Thomas More's opposition over the king's marriage to Anne Boleyn, the latter puts the king under pressure. The hysterical Anne refuses to share the bed with her husband in the future unless Thomas More is sentenced to death. Heinrich gives in to her demand. Anne gives birth to a dead son after her second pregnancy. Henry VIII then asks his new minister, Thomas Cromwell , to find a way to get rid of the wife who has become annoying to him. One of her servants, the court musician Marc Smeaton, is tortured and extorted from him the confession of having committed adultery with Anne Boleyn. Shortly thereafter, four other men, including Heinrich's best friends, are charged with adultery with Anna Boleyn, while Anne is taken to the Tower of London and placed under arrest. A short time later, Anne witnesses how her brother, who is suspected of incest with his sister , is brought into the Tower . Anne thinks her husband is deranged and doomed to himself.
At the trial against her, Anne Boleyn can cross-examine her accused servants and convict them of false statements. Henry VIII then visits his wife in the Tower of London. He promises her freedom if she has her marriage to him declared invalid. However, this would also declare her daughter Elizabeth illegitimate. Anne refuses to consent to the annulment of the marriage. She is more ready to die than betray Elizabeth. Heinrich slaps her before he tells her that this disobedience will mean her death.
The flashback ends here; Heinrich signs the death sentence, a few days later Anne Boleyn walks to the scaffold and, since she always loved the French way, is elegantly beheaded by a French executioner with a sword instead of an English executioner with an ax. Henry VIII sets out to marry Jane Seymour, while the final film sequences are dedicated to Anne's daughter Elizabeth, who is frolicking in the garden when she suddenly hears cannon fire, announcing Anne's death to the people.
History of origin
Queen for a Thousand Days is based on the 1947 play Anne of the Thousand Days by the American playwright Maxwell Anderson (1888-1959). The drama in blank verse written, was in 1948 with Rex Harrison as Henry VIII. And Joyce Redman as Anne Boleyn on the New York Broadway premiere and two Tony Awards honored. Harrison for best actor (drama) and Jo Mielziner for best choreography received the prestigious US theater award in 1949 . A screen adaptation of the play, however, was a long time coming. Anne of the Thousand Days could not be adapted for the screen until more than twenty years later in 1969. The reasons for this are the open discussions in the play about adultery, illegitimacy and incest, as well as the Hays Code , which existed until 1967 , which emphasized the morally acceptable representation of crime and sexual intercourse in American cinemas.
The American Hal B. Wallis was responsible for the production. The producer of films such as The Trace of the Falcon (1941) and Casablanca (1942) realized the film with his production company named after him, Hal Wallis Productions . British-Canadian director Charles Jarrott, who made his cinema debut with Queen for a thousand days after a series of TV films and series, was hired to direct. John Hale and Bridget Boland were responsible for the script , who edited Maxwell Anderson's play after an adaptation by Richard Sokolove , although Anderson's blank verse format was not included in the final film script. The subject of the film partially overlaps with the no less successful historical drama A Man in Every Season, which was realized four years earlier . Here, however, Thomas More (played by Paul Scofield ) and his conflict with Henry VIII was the focus of the film and Anne Boleyn, played by Vanessa Redgrave , only acted as a marginal figure.
The Argentinian- British actress Olivia Hussey was originally the first choice to cast the title role . Hussey had celebrated her international breakthrough as an actress in Franco Zeffirelli's film adaptation of the Shakespeare tragedy Romeo and Juliet in 1968 at the age of just seventeen , but had to turn down the role of Anne Boleyn due to personal problems. The 20-year-old French actress Claude Jade , who had just become known for Truffaut's Stolen Kisses (1968) and who had signed a seven-year contract with Universal for Hitchcock's Topaz , was also eligible. The 28-year-old American Faye Dunaway , who a year earlier had attracted attention in Hollywood as the title character in Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde , turned down the female lead in Queen for a thousand days . The actress Geneviève Bujold could be won as a replacement for the part of Anne Boleyn. The charismatic 26-year-old French-speaking Canadian had made a name for herself in French cinema primarily through her collaboration with Alain Resnais for his film The War is Over (1966). Bujold was barely known to the American audience, as she had mainly appeared in front of the camera in TV productions in the USA and Canada . a. in an episode of the NBC series Hallmark Hall of Fame , for which she had received a 1968 nomination for the US Emmy Television Award as Johanna von Orléans . The renowned British film and theater actor Richard Burton has been won over for the role of King Henry VIII . Other international actors such as Irene Papas , Anthony Quayle and John Colicos completed the acting ensemble .
The shooting took place in London as well as in the well-known Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire and the Shepperton Studios in Surrey . The film was shot on 35 mm film in Technicolor colors and cameras from Panavision .
reception
The film celebrated a limited release in US cinemas on December 18, 1969 in order to qualify for the Oscars next year. The period drama was only released nationwide in the USA in 1970. The film studio Universal Pictures acted as distributor in the USA . Originally, Queen was rated M ("Mature Audiences") for a mature audience by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) for a thousand days . However, the age rating later changed to a PG ("parental guidance suggested"), which recommends a prior assessment or supervision by a parent or an adult. The critics praised Charles Jarrott's film debut as an elegant staging in the style of historical epics such as Fred Zinnemann's A Man in Every Season (1966) and Peter Glenville's Becket (1964); the latter film was also produced by Hal B. Wallis. The acting ensemble also received great reviews, in particular Geneviève Bujold as the passionate heroine and the renowned Shakespeare actor Richard Burton, who was able to bring out his impressive voice for the portrayal of a boorish and clever Henry VIII. Critical voices saw the film more as a vehicle for great performance and criticized the conventionally awesome style of production, in which it was assumed that the successful producer had dictated this to his director, who was not yet tried out in the cinema.
After the great success of Queen for a thousand days , Geneviève Bujold could not build on the success of her first Hollywood role. She got out of the planned film project Maria Stuart, Queen of Scotland , which was to be realized again with Hal B. Wallis as producer, Charles Jarrott as director, the same screenwriter and the same costume designer. The film studio Universal Pictures then filed a lawsuit for damages in the amount of 750,000 US dollars and later replaced Bujold with the British Vanessa Redgrave .
Reviews
- "This' Anne of the Thousand Days' is one of those almost unbearable elegant films like 'A Man for Every Season' and 'Becket' that in a way elevates filmmakers' reputations without doing much for the arts was shot in color, with care in all manner of lovely English settings ... the game has been considerably opened up to take advantage of the outdoor settings, but the heart of the film is still some sort of epic battle of the sexes, with Richard Burton as Heinrich in one corner and Genevieve Bujold as Anne in the other. " (New York Times)
- Lexicon of international film : “Splendid historical film that deals with history very freely; artistically remarkable only in some passages. "
- Cinema: “A carefully prepared and superbly played episode from the life of the notorious English king. Mandatory classics for fans of the Tudors. "
- Arte.tv: “A story about love, honor and power, about the bond between two people, which begins as if in a frenzy and ends with betrayal. Richard Burton and Geneviève Bujold shine in the leading roles. "
Remarks
- The masked courtesan who disturbs Catherine of Aragon during her prayers is played by Elizabeth Taylor . At the time, Taylor, who received only $ 47 for her performance, was not mentioned on the cast list. She'd only accepted the role to be around Burton.
- Lead actor Richard Burton hired fellow actor Sidney James a year later for the filming of Gerald Thomas ' satire Heinrichs Bettgeschichten or How Garlic Came to England his wardrobe as Henry VIII .
- The South African actress Katharine Blake , then the wife of director Charles Jarrott, can be seen in a supporting role as Anne's mother Elizabeth Boleyn .
Awards
At the presentation of the Golden Globe Awards on February 2, 1970 at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles , the Queen was able to prevail in four of seven categories for a thousand days , including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Actress in a Drama (Geneviève Bujold) . As a big favorite of the Academy Awards, the historical drama led the field of contenders with ten nominations, followed by u. a. from George Roy Hills western film Two Bandits , John Schlesinger's Asphalt Cowboy and Gene Kelly's comedy Hello, Dolly! with seven nominations each. At the Academy Awards on April 7, 1970 (official count 1969) in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, Queen could not live up to his role as favorite for a thousand days ; the Oscar for Best Picture and Screenplay went to Asphalt-Cowbowy and Geneviève Bujold was surprisingly defeated by absent British film award winner Maggie Smith ( Miss Jean Brodie's Best Years ) , while leading actor Richard Burton and supporting actor Anthony Quayle faced John Wayne ( The Marshal ) and Gig Young ( Horses are only given a coup de grace ) left behind. Only the costumes by designer Margaret Furse were ultimately awarded the Oscar .
Oscar 1969
- Best costumes
- nominated in the categories
- Best movie
- Best adapted script
- Best Actor (Richard Burton)
- Best Actress (Geneviève Bujold)
- Best Supporting Actor (Anthony Quayle)
- Best equipment
- Best film score
- Best camera
- Best tone
- nominated in the categories
Society of Film and Television Arts Awards 1971 (Great Britain)
- nominated in the categories
- Best equipment
- Best costumes
Golden Globe Award 1970
- Best film - drama
- Best director
- Best script
- Best Actress - Drama (Geneviève Bujold)
- nominated in the categories
- Best Actor - Drama (Richard Burton)
- Best Supporting Actor (Anthony Quayle)
- Best film score
- nominated in the categories
Further
- nominated in the category Best Editing - Feature Film
- nominated in the Best Adapted Screenplay category
Historical accuracy
Queen for a thousand days is historically correct that the allegations against Anne Boleyn were not true. Modern biographies about them by historians such as Eric Ives , Retha Warnicke , Joanna Denny and the Tudor expert David Starkey speak freely of adultery, incest or even witchcraft . Nevertheless, some historical inaccuracies or errors have crept into Charles Jarrot's film:
- Heinrich's infatuation with Anne Boleyn should not have sealed the end of the marriage to Catherine of Aragon. According to historians, the English king had been considering divorce for several years.
- Maria Boleyn's children Henry and Catherine Carey were probably not fathered by Henry VIII. Although the king recognized his illegitimate offspring and was proud of them, he did not do that with Maria Boleyn's children.
- Anne Boleyn was not eighteen in 1527. Your date of birth is generally set to be 1501. However, the historian Retha Warnicke takes the view that Anne Boleyn was born in 1507.
- From the marriage on January 25, 1533 to her execution on May 19, 1536, 1210 days passed, and from the coronation on June 1, 1533, it was not 1000, but 1083 days.
- Contrary to the plot of the film, Henry VIII is said to have been interested in Anne Boleyn only after he had ended the affair with her sister Maria.
- Anne Boleyn is said not to have aimed to destroy Cardinal Wolsey; but in 1529 she turned against him.
- There is no evidence that Henry and Anne's marriage fell apart after the birth of daughter Elizabeth in 1533. The rift between the two is said to have started much later.
- Anne Boleyn is said not to have caused her husband to have Thomas More killed. This legend about the second wife of Henry VIII is said to have originated a generation after her death. More is said to never have refused to recognize Anne Boleyn as queen; in fact, he sent a letter to King Henry in 1533 praying that Anne would soon bear children and expressing his loyalty to the new queen. He died because he did not want to recognize Henry VIII as the new head of the Anglican Church.
- Anne Boleyn's marriage to the king was annulled without being offered freedom in return for consent. The wisest way for Anne Boleyn to protect Elizabeth was to accept all of Henry VIII's demands, although it is not known whether Anne fully cooperated or her enemies claimed so.
- The film suggests that Anne Boleyn may have lost her innocence by the time she met King Henry, but historians believe that this is not the case. Sources in France and research by the historians Eric W. Ives and Retha Warnicke indicate that Anne Boleyn was still a virgin until her secret wedding in 1532/1533 to Henry VIII.
- Henry VIII is said to never have interfered in the Anne Boleyn trial. In addition, she is said never to have been given the opportunity to question witnesses. Heinrich and Anne are said to have met for the last time at a tournament, the day before she was arrested.
literature
- Maxwell Anderson: Anne of the thousand days . W. Sloane Associates, [New York] 1948. (English edition)
- John Hale, Charles Jarrott, Hal B. Wallis, Bridget Boland, Maxwell Anderson: Anne of the thousand days . 1969. (film script, archive material, English edition)
- Anne of the thousand days: starring Richard Burton & Genevieve Bujold . Publicity Departments, Universal Pictures, London? 1970. (English edition)
- E. Scott Wells: Anne of the thousand days: a director's analysis of the playwright, the historic background of the setting and characters, and of the play for production. Dissertation . Linfield College, 1973. (English edition)
- Don S. Sundquist: Director's manual and prompt book for Maxwell Anderson's Anne of the Thousand Days. Dissertation. University of South Dakota, 1956. (English edition)
- Wendy Nelson: A study of Maxwell Anderson's Tudor trilogy: Anne of the thousand days, Mary of Scotland, Elizabeth the Queen. Dissertation. Catholic University of America, 1968. (English edition)
- Judith Bacon Williams: An application of epic theory to a production of Maxwell Anderson's Anne of the thousand days. Dissertation. University of Maine, 1973. (English edition)
- Ray H. Lancaster: Irony in Maxwell Anderson's Elizabeth the queen, Mary of Scotland, and Anne of the thousand days . Dissertation. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1966. (English edition)
Web links
- Anne of the Thousand Days in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Queen for a thousand days. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ http://www.cinema.de/film/koenigin-fuer-tausend-tage,1330777.html
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from February 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ J. Randy Taraborrelli: Elizabeth , Grand Central Publishing, 2007, ISBN 0-446-40036-X , p. 273
