It’s a classic — Anne of the Thousand Days (1969) stands as one of our favorite portrayals of Anne Boleyn around here at Frock Flicks HQ, primarily because of Geneviève Bujold’s performance. While we’ve discussed her various times and briefly looked at Margaret Furse‘s Oscar-winning costumes for the film, we’ve yet to do a deep-dive on this movie. Time to fix that!
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Some of Anne’s sticky-uppy French hoods remind me of the Draag headsets in Fantastic Planet.
Mixed feelings; why are Henry’s costumes so small and narrow in comparison to what the real Henry wore? Interesting that wifey Elizabeth Taylor has cleavage while none of the other actresses do. Genevieve looks gorgeous (what ever happened to her?), but agree the costumes are more hysterical than historical. The obv 60s slightly ratted poof combined with straight hair reminds me of high school girls who babysat me about then. The eye makeup too. Ugh. At least Wolf Hall is getting things right, pins and all.
On a less than serious note, if you have Elizabeth Taylor’s cleavage to sell a movie, wouldn’t you put that particular asset to work?
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This being the Mighty Liz, I’m not even sure if we’re talking the lady herself or the studio types.
Both? Both!
The story goes that Liz insisted on a cameo role because she wanted to keep an eye on Richard, whom she suspected of dallying with Genevieve Bujold. (Not sure if he ever actually did.) For that reason, she hovered over the set the day they were filming the big confrontation scene, and Genevieve, furious, vowed she’d “give that bitch an acting lesson she’d never forget!” And she did!
Seeing this thread opened to the public so shortly before THE MIRROR AND THE LIGHT were unveiled reminds me of an old pastime – pondering which actresses & actors past and present (with form in depictions of the Tudor Era) would make the Very Best casting choices for an adaptation of WOLF HALL et al.
This movie was my “gateway Anne”. In 1999, when I was in my late twenties and wrapping up grad school, I landed on this movie on Bravo, coming in near the beginning when Anne was still happily in love with Henry Percy. (This was back when Bravo showed quality films and cultural programming instead of endless iterations of Rich People Make Complete And Utter Fools Of Themselves.) I was only familiar with the outlines of Anne’s story, and only vaguely knew she’d once been courted by Henry Percy (it was mentioned in passing in a Bertrice Small romance novel in which Anne figured as a suporting character).
I was HOOKED. In the days that followed, I checked out every novel I could find that retold Anne’s story: Anne Boleyn by Evelyn Anthony, The Concubine by Norah Lofts, Blood Royal by Mollie Hardwicke, Brief Gaudy Hour by Margaret Campbell Barnes, The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn by Robin Maxwell. (They are all back in print on Kindle; Blood Royal only recently.) This was before The Tudors and TOBG, so I can safely say I liked Anne Boleyn BEFORE it was cool.
I think Anne’s story is so attractive to historical novelists because it has a built-in dramatic arc. It can be tough to do biographical fiction without it turning into a series of “and-thens”, so it needs to have an interesting hook to hang it on (such as an outside perspective, perhaps of a fictional character observing the action) or a compelling dramatic arc in its own right. The story’s also very versatile: if you see Anne as a scheming temptress who destroyed poor Catherine of Aragon’s happiness, you can read Anne’s eventual downfall as a story of the wages of sin. If you see Anne as an intelligent, independent woman maneuvering in the system in the only way available to her, you can read her story as a tragedy of a woman ahead of her time who, in the end, could not overcome the social forces arrayed against her.
Going back to Anne of the Thousand Days…that final confrontation scene could not have happened, but it was so well-done and so dramatically appropriate that we forgive that. That’s pretty much what historical fiction does…occasionally takes liberties or fills in gaps to make for a more dramatically compelling story. So why is it forgivable from some writers, but not from others?