My Review- The Duke
My Rating 7:10
" The Duke " based on a true story starring Jim Broadbent as Kempton Cannon Bunton a disabled British pensioner who stole Francisco Goya's painting Portrait of the Duke of Wellington from the National Gallery in London in 1961.
The film also stars Jim Broadbent, Helen Mirren, Fionn Whitehead, Anna Maxwell Martin and Matthew Goode.
Release of the film was delayed because of the Covid-19 pandemic . Sadly director Roger Michell passed away in September 2021, five months before this film was finally theatrically released in February 2022. It was his final film.
Roger Michell directed famous movies like Notting Hill. Venus, Tea With the Dames and Hyde Park on Hudson to name a few.
The Duke is an enjoyable film teaming two great British Actors . Jim Broadbent is always good playing eccentric English characters like Kempton Bunton and Dame Helen Mirren is barely recognisable as Dorothy Bunton his mousey but very vocal wife and plays this role so well.
The Producers and Director have gone to great lengths to authenticate the era using authentic TV footage from the era . Actual news reporting of the theft is used some of it from the BBC archives .
It also uses some colour footage taken from Pathe newsreels to depict London in the early 1960s.
In a rare coup permission was given to use a clip from a James Bond film to add authenticity to an era in another movie.
Dame Helen Mirren and director Roger Michell personally asked the Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson for permission to use the Scene from Dr No (1962) which features the actual painting of The Duke of Wellington promising that the scene would be used in context and fortunately they had no objections.
Although the theft of the Goya and the trial were headline news, the actual details of the deal the Police made with the actual culprit did not emerge until 2011.
It's an enjoyable and entertaining movie .
" The Duke " based on a true story starring Jim Broadbent as Kempton Cannon Bunton a disabled British pensioner who stole Francisco Goya's painting Portrait of the Duke of Wellington from the National Gallery in London in 1961.
The film also stars Jim Broadbent, Helen Mirren, Fionn Whitehead, Anna Maxwell Martin and Matthew Goode.
Release of the film was delayed because of the Covid-19 pandemic . Sadly director Roger Michell passed away in September 2021, five months before this film was finally theatrically released in February 2022. It was his final film.
Roger Michell directed famous movies like Notting Hill. Venus, Tea With the Dames and Hyde Park on Hudson to name a few.
The Duke is an enjoyable film teaming two great British Actors . Jim Broadbent is always good playing eccentric English characters like Kempton Bunton and Dame Helen Mirren is barely recognisable as Dorothy Bunton his mousey but very vocal wife and plays this role so well.
The Producers and Director have gone to great lengths to authenticate the era using authentic TV footage from the era . Actual news reporting of the theft is used some of it from the BBC archives .
It also uses some colour footage taken from Pathe newsreels to depict London in the early 1960s.
In a rare coup permission was given to use a clip from a James Bond film to add authenticity to an era in another movie.
Dame Helen Mirren and director Roger Michell personally asked the Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson for permission to use the Scene from Dr No (1962) which features the actual painting of The Duke of Wellington promising that the scene would be used in context and fortunately they had no objections.
Although the theft of the Goya and the trial were headline news, the actual details of the deal the Police made with the actual culprit did not emerge until 2011.
It's an enjoyable and entertaining movie .