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My Favorite Players in Tudor Cinema |
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There have been a great many films made about the Tudor period of history, most of them showing the Catholics in a rather unfavorable light, a particularly notable exception being A Man for All Seasons about the life of St Thomas More. I have certainly not seen all of the movies about Tudor England, nor have I even seen most of them, but of those I have seen it is not surprising that my favorites tend to be those of the great Catholics of the time such as queens like Marie d'Guise, Catherine of Aragon, Jane Seymour and Mary Queen of Scots or the Catholics who stood up for the faith against Protestant tyranny like Robert Aske. Below is a list of my favorites from Tudor cinema and why they are so: |
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Fanny Ardant as Queen Marie d'Guise in the 1998 movie Elizabeth |
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The award winning 1998 film Elizabeth certainly does not try in the least to be fair toward the Catholic point of view and virtually every Catholic in the movie is portrayed as a horrible villain --but some still play it very well. My absolute favorite character in the movie was Queen Marie d'Guise played by Fanny Ardant, who as this film shows is certainly growing old gracefully. She plays the part to perfection even though it is a part totally out of touch with historical reality. In this movie, Marie d'Guise is essentially a cruel, ambitious and somewhat degenerate French temptress who is killed (off camera) during an illicit liaison with Sir Francis Walsingham. Marie d'Guise (the real one) was nothing like this, in fact, if anything it was she who was the victim of English treachery, and on a superficial note, by the time of the reign of Elizabeth I, Marie d'Guise looked nothing like Fanny Ardant but had by then become a rather large and sickly woman. So, why do I like her? She plays the part very well, and who could resist a French woman of her mature beauty riding on to the battlefield with an armor breastplate over her dress, glorying in her triumph over the English army? Warrior queens are usually sure-winners with me. She completely captured the style the filmmakers were going for as being strong, cunning, attractive and dangerous. The real Marie d'Guise was totally the opposite as far as her morals but she was a strong woman and a gifted ruler, always willing to face the enemy. I'm sure the real Queen would not have appreciated how she was portrayed, though she probably wished she looked as good as Ardant at that stage in her life. |
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Annabelle Dowler as Queen Catherine of Aragon in the Channel 4 documentary The Wives of Henry VIII |
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Dr. David Starkey presented this documentary based on his work on the Tudor women around Henry VIII and the filmmakers struck gold in casting Annabelle Dowler as Catherine of Aragon. Having studied Spanish and lived in Madrid for two years, she was able to be totally convincing as a Spanish princess brought to England. She also brought youth and beauty to a role that is usually seen as one of a rather plain, older woman who simply fusses and prays. Dowler shows us the real Catherine of Aragon, a strong and faithful woman who stood up to immense challenges. Dowler herself has quite a job in the film, meeting a variety of acting challenges. In the small scenes inherent in a documentary she effectively portrays the giddy excitement of a young girl about to be married, depression on the death of loved ones, coupled with shame when one loss is that of the child Henry so desperately wants, a proud mother instructing her daughter, a pious Catholic in prayer, an in-control Queen ruling England in the absence of her husband during a time of crisis and fighting for her marriage and her daughter when Henry tries to cast her aside. There are so many various emotions and situations she has to master and she does them all very well. Because of how her life with Henry VIII ended people too often view Catherine as generally unappealing, but Annabelle Dowler shows her as I have always seen her: the ideal woman, wife and queen. |
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Emilia Fox as Jane Seymour in the 2003 HBO-ITV movie Henry VIII |
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There should be no doubt that Emilia Fox would be good at her job since this kickboxing London girl has acting in her veins being the daughter of Sir Edward Fox OBE. She was very believable in her part and I think presented an image of Jane Seymour that is not often considered. In this film, Jane Seymour, a devoted wife, is also a faithful woman with strong opinions and firm principles. Emilia manages to strike the right balance I think between pushing for what she believes in and being a good Tudor-era wife, which is what the real Jane Seymour had to do. She comes across as a good, devout woman, a faithful Catholic who wants to see reconciliation in the Tudor family as well as between England and Rome. She brings down the wrath of her husband because she feels so strongly about this and yet Emilia is believable as a wife who cares about the soul of her husband and wants him to see the error of his ways and return to the embrace of the Church. Her best scenes are the pride in her face as Mary is brought back to court and she tells her how the King has changed and has agreed to the restoration of the old Church and when Henry VIII blows up at her for interfering, the second time becoming violent at which point she goes into labor. Her talent definitely shows in those moments. Some have dismissed the idea that Henry ever struck Jane, but I don't think it totally impossible as he had already beheaded his last wife and threatened (though we don't know how seriously) Jane with a similar threat if she continued to try to advise him on political and religious matters. Emilia is a lovely Jane. |
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Emily Blunt as Kathryn Howard in the 2003 HBO-ITV movie Henry VIII |
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Emily Blunt is my favorite Kathryn Howard, though I don't entirely agree with how the writers chose to portray the part, Emily played it extremely well. This, the most commonly held view of Kathryn Howard, is tailor-made for modern audiences. She is a gorgeous teenage girl who can have any man she wants and knows it. She's the Tudor era equivalent of a Homecoming Queen who thinks she can do whatever she likes to whoever she likes and get away with it because her classic beauty has always given her a pass before. As she says in the film, she knows that her "looks please most men". It is understood that she has had plenty of men before the King, going along with the Duke of Norfolk as he presents her to Henry as the perfect woman; a young, beautiful virgin who reads, prays and does needlework and finds the aged, grossly fat king very attractive. It is as much the fault of the king for being so deluded as to believe this; I guess no one ever told him that if it seems too good to be true, it always is. Much is made in this film of the schemes of her family, not only do they push her forward to enthrall the king, but they cover up her affair with Thomas Culpeper and even encourage it as a way to produce an heir to the throne since Henry was by that time unable to perform his marital duties. Yet, it is a credit to Emily Blunt that she can still make Kathryn a sympathetic figure. Her stunning good looks, irresponsible and light hearted nature as well as the sadness shown at her death captured, I think, the real Kathryn Howard, even though the real Kathryn might not have been quite so "experienced" and we know did not become hysterical at her execution. |
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Dame Judi Dench as Queen Elizabeth in the 1998 film Shakespeare In Love |
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Queen Elizabeth I is certainly not one of my beloved figures of the Tudor era, but she was certainly large and in charge and one of my favorite actresses gave what is my favorite portrayal of the Queen and she did it in only a scant eight minutes of screen time. Shakespeare In Love is not really concerned with the Tudor period, that is simply a background for a modern-day love story to be presented in an Elizabethan wrapper. However, in her few scenes as Queen Elizabeth I, Dame Judi Dench captures so well I think a more realistic view of the Queen we do not often see. This Queen Elizabeth has rotten teeth, cackles loudly at her entertainment and makes bets with upstart gentlemen. However, we also see that she is a strong woman, a worldly woman but also one who is not totally cynical and she, in just a moment, shows that she has hard won experience and knows how the world works. Again, she accomplishes more and tells us more about her character in eight little minutes than some can do in two hours. |
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