I am writing this whilst waiting on the phone to speak to a call centre. ('Thank you for your patience; please hold, and one of our advisors will be with you as soon as possible'; dum di dum di dum). Woke up this morning feeling somewhat bleak in the rain, but have ordered myself to show stiff upper lip, inspired by seeing 'The King's Speech' at the weekend. Not that a stiff upper lip was necessarily very helpful in curing the King's stammer; but anyway, it is an excellent film, and deserves all of its many plaudits. Oh, and I very much liked the blue hat and dress that Helena Bonham Carter wore in the scene in which she and her husband visited Balmoral Castle, where they are dismayed to discover Mrs Simpson in residence, and a great deal of drinking and dancing going on... Rather pleasing to see Wallis as less glamorous than usual portrayals (there is such a thing as being too rich and too thin) and the plumper future Queen Mother eating sweets in the back of a car, but still retaining a chic sangfroid.
7 comments:
Am really looking forward to seeing this film and enjoyed watching Colin Firth triumph at The Golden Globes earlier today. I had hoped to see it this weekend but am suffering from the after effects of a chest infection namely a really irritating cough which would not have endeared me to my fellow cinema goers! So hopefully next weekend - will this winter never end? Instead of a cinema trip I read a book I had been given for Christmas: "Major Pettigrew's Last Stand" by Helen Simonson - wonderful, life-enhancing and a real lift to the spirits!
I saw the film at the weekend, it's superb. Very moving. Colin Firth is excellent and I'm really into Helena Bonham-Carter at the moment, she was brilliant in Toast at Christmas.
"The King's Speech" is a wonderful film, thanks to phenomenal acting. However, it does distort the actual history between the Royal Family's and the Nazis a bit: http://andreasmoser.wordpress.com/2011/01/17/the-kings-speech/
My OH bought me the book for Christmas and we went to see the film last week. andreasmoser is right - the film is not entirely accurate. There is no evidence in the diaries or notebooks that Logue ever spoke to the King other than deferentially or in almost a fawning fashion and the QM did not set up the appointments or visit Logue with him. However, it was a great film and I would have liked to see our own Aussie Geoffrey Rush win something as well as Colin Firth because they were both very good.
Did anyone see what Helena B-C wore to the Golden Globes? She looked like a character from Dr Who - IMHO!!
Saw this last night. Didn't you just love the scene where the King was strengthening his diaphram by raising & lowering the Queen?
Thoroughly excellent film.
Great film, good wry/witty script and fabulous performances all round.
I'm interested in the argument about historical accuracy, and the links between royals and the Nazis. I thought it was just the Windsors who were pro-Nazi? The story inhabits similar territory to Coco Chanel's, not least her involvement with the Germans, so of course, I'm intrigued by the way in which the (real) cast list overlaps -- Churchill, the British aristocracy, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Chanel et al...
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