The King's Speech is a British film about King George VI who has a
stammer. He ends up becoming King after his brother abdicated from the throne.
He is considered to be unfit to be King but with the help of a very strange
speech therapist, Lionel Logue, George ends up finding his voice and leads
Britain through the World War 2.
Britishness
What makes a film British?
From the government: “Most people would define a ‘British’ film with
reference to obvious cultural elements such as: a setting in the UK or a focus
on British people abroad; a predominantly British cast; a storyline about some
aspect of British life — past, present or future — or notably by, or based on a
work by, a British author.”
But recently less British films are made in Britain or have British
actors in it such as Slumdog Millionaire which is classed as a British film.
But what classes this film as a British film is that the director and writer of
the film are both British, so the film was created by British people, which can
class films as British weather they are filmed in Britain and have British
actors or not.
Box Office in the UK
The film it’s self on the opening weekend made a huge £3,523,102 in the UK on 7th January
2011 which made double the amount Slum dog
Millionaire made on its opening weekend, £1.83m. The Kings Speech over
all made a huge gross of $138,795,342, which is brilliant being as the film started
with a small budget of $15,000,00.
Films
Reception
IMDb give the Kings speech a rating of
8.1/10 and it got a mega score of 88/100 while Rotten Tomatoes gave the film an
advert rating of 8.6/10 and 94% of the audience liked the film. With good
reviews such as ‘The King's Speech features a fantastic,
awards courting performance by Firth and is also brilliantly written, resulting
in a surprisingly tense and very entertaining watch.’ (Rotten tomatoes) and
‘It's refreshing to see a historical drama avoid grand gestures and sweeping
melodrama in favor of smaller more intimate stories.’ (Rotten tomatoes). ‘There
was abundant humor without the film ever becoming a comedy, drama without
dreariness, and many deeply moving moments. I can't praise this film enough. It
boosted my appreciation of the human capacity to become our best selves, and
rise to meet even the most daunting challenges’ (IMDb) and ‘The story line is
all about his stuttering, but underneath all that are suppressed memories from
childhood, growing up in the shadow of an elder brother, perpetual negative
reinforcement from a domineering father, etc. It's a psychoanalytical look at a
well-known royal family, and while I can't vouch for its absolute veracity, it
gives a rare glimpse into the lives of people we wouldn't otherwise observe at
this level of intimacy’ (IMDb).
Phillip French from the guardian who
praises the film says that ‘the film is a major achievement, with Firth
presenting us with a great profile in courage, a portrait of that recurrent
figure, the stammerer as hero’ and that ‘It
is the work of a highly talented group of artists who might be regarded as
British realists’. But he also criticizes that ‘the film is not without its odd
faults, the truly annoying one being the representation of Winston Churchill
(Timothy Spall) as a supporter of George during the abdication’.
The film cant come without criticism,
some reviews mention that the film contains a number of errors about the
historical accuracy. The font used in the text in the BBC broadcasting room not
being a font that was even available till the 50’s and also that some women were
spotted wearing seamless stockings which were not available until later in
life. Overall the film was criticized but the positives out way the negatives.
Web
2.0 and Exchange
The film itself had its own Facebook
that advertised the film, posting posters and trailers as well as director
comments and actors comments to attract a wider audience that are available on
social networking sites. The film had a number of YouTube clips posted about it
like people giving reviews and expectations of the film, for example a Youtube clip by beyond the trailer got 70,102 views. There were reviews and
comments on the film in newspapers such as in the guardian by Phillip French
and in the telegraph by Sukhdev Sandhu.
The film has an appeal, not only to a British audience because it
shows a story where the royal family are seen in private and show personal
troubles, but also to an international audience - members of the old British
colonies in particular - because it shows a story where a "commoner"
from the colonies develops a friendship with the King. This draws in a large
audience from American who love their connection to the British monarchy and
the idea that someone like them from a colony country could develop a
friendship with a member of the royal family. Also gives Americans more
information on the royals and that they are more normal and easy to connect
with then you think, shows them in a different more common light.
The
film’s origins
David Seidler the writer read about George VI's life
after overcoming a stuttering condition he endured during his youth. He started
writing about the relationship between the monarch and his therapist as early
as the 1980s, but at the request of the King's widow, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, postponed work until her death in 2002. He later
rewrote his screenplay for the stage to focus on the essential relationship
between the two protagonists. Nine weeks before filming began, Logue's
notebooks were discovered and quotations from them were incorporated into the
script. Therefore this film originated from a true, real life story about an
event that happened within the royal family.
The Finance
The UK Film council contributed towards the financial backing
for the film alongside Prescience films and UK Film finance company that
showed an immediate interest in the films making. Harvey Weinstein in the USA
also became a huge investor of the film and together these companies have made
$12 million of the budget.
Production companies
The production companies of the film were Weinstein Company,
The UK Film Council, Momentum Pictures, See-Saw Films as well as other
companies. See-Saw, a British/Australian company, financed and produced the film
but by getting deals with key distribution partners such as The Weinstein
Company (USA) Momentum Pictures (UK) Transmission (Australia) and Alliance Film
(Canada). This is a good example of a film that can receive a huge global
success and without the help of huge Hollywood studios.
Distribution
and marketing issues
The trailers used for the UK and US differ, as the UK
trailer shows more of Colin Firths character and his personal journey,
overcoming his stammer and becoming King. But the US trailer shows more of
Geoffrey Rush’s character and how he plays a huge part in helping George
overcome his struggle with speech. In the US trailer Helen Bonham Carter’s character
refers to her husband as the King rather than the Duke of York which is what
she calls him in the UK trailer, which makes the US trailer want to seem more
British to attract the American audience that love the British Royals so much. The UK trailer as well
uses a well-known British quote from Shakespeare "some men are born great,
others have greatness thrust upon them" this adds to the sense of
Britishness in the UK trailer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dq2IT299EKo UK Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzI4D6dyp_o US Trailer
The various posters and trailers all play an important part in the
marketing of the film. The posters were placed everywhere, on the sides of
buses, billboards, bus stops etc. The idea of the posters is to grab people's
attention, having them everywhere means people can't avoid them, which makes
them want to watch the trailer and find out more about the film. The trailer
then aims draw the audience in completely and to get them to see it.
Major issues
facing British film makers
“It's clear that British cinema has been weathering the global recession
well” said UK Film Council chief executive John Woodward. He said the sectors of production, distribution
and exhibition were "firing on all cylinders". But he said the marketplace for financing smaller,
independently-produced British films has become more difficult. This was partly
as a result of the overall economic slowdown and partly down to "the
increasingly tough transition from the analogue to the digital age". However, it has been a record of couple of
years at the UK box office overall from 2009-2012, with takings of £944m and the
highest admissions since 2002 (173.5 million) thanks to films like Kings
Speech, Slum dog millionaire and Avatar.
Tom Hooper mentions that the use of big name
stars is a large part of the appeal to films and that also is very expensive.
So although the digital revolution has change and given the British film
industry opportunities film makers are still restricted by costs of marketing
and distribution, and also the ability to make a film with wide appeal with
blockbuster stars.
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