The Kings Speech
The King's Speech is a historical drama film. Colin Firth plays King George VI who, to cope with a stammer, sees Lionel Logue, an Australian speech therapist played by Geoffrey Rush. The men become friends as they work together, and after his brother abdicates the throne, the new King relies on Logue to help him make his first wartime radio broadcast on Britain's declaration of war on Germany in 1939.
Britishness
This film is quintessentially British. The setting, costume and dialect show this from the first scene of the film. I believe that this is why it was so successful, as it shows Britain is such a good light.
Box Office
Defying all odds, the film was the highest earning film on its opening weekend in the UK and Ireland. Taking in £3,510,000 and only showing in 395 cinemas around the UK and Ireland.
The film's reception
The film received great reception all around the world. This is proven with the fact that in the US, it made $355,450 out of only four cinemas. Then, there was such high demand for the film, they previewed it in 1,543 screens, to then make $138 million overall. For its success, it holds the record for the highest per-cinema gross of 2010.
As well as this, the film got great reviews.
Mark Kermode says "The American particularly loves films about British monarchs developing a relationship with somebody from.. and in this case, not only a commoner, but a commoner from the colonies, cause therefore, they love the idea of the monarchy, and they love the idea of being connected with the monarchy, and they love the idea of the friendship somehow transends the monarchic bounce, so you have all that... There is no doubt that this has got Oscar written all over it" also "The film is brilliantly played, it is a fantastic performance when Colin Firth wins his awards, as I am sure he will."
Criticism of the film
The King's Speech has received widespread critical acclaim. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 94% based on reviews from 233 critics; their average rating was calculated as 8.6/10. It summarised the critical consensus as: "Colin Firth gives a masterful performance in The King's Speech, a predictable but stylishly produced and rousing period drama." Metacritic gave the film a weighted score of 88/100, based on 41 critiques, which it ranks as "universal acclaim". Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times awarded the film a full four stars, commenting that "what we have here is a superior historical drama and a powerful personal one." Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave four stars out of five, stating, "Tom Hooper's richly enjoyable and handsomely produced movie ... is a massively confident crowd-pleaser." Richard Corliss of Time magazine named Colin Firth's performance one of the Top 10 Movie Performances of 2010. The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists welcomed the film, and launched their "Giving Voice" campaign around the time of its commercial release.
Le Monde, which characterised the film as the "latest manifestation of British narcissism" and summarised it as "We are ugly and boring, but, By Jove!, we are right!", nevertheless admired the performances of Firth, Rush, and Bonham Carter. It said that, though the film swept British appeasement under the carpet, it was still enjoyable.
Queen Elizabeth II, the reigning monarch of the Commonwealth realms and the daughter of King George VI, was sent two copies of the film before Christmas 2010. The Sun newspaper reported she had watched the film in a private screening at Sandringham House. A palace source described her reaction as being "touched by a moving portrayal of her father". Seidler called the reports "the highest honour" the film could receive.
Web 2.0 and Exchange
The film had a Facebook page, where people could write their reviews of the film and to help promote the film. The distributors launched a YouTube account so that the trailers could be released on YouTube as well as being shown on the TV and in the cinemas. This also means that when people are talking about the film, they can show their friends the official trailer of the film as it is in the internet, this will then increase sales as more people may be able to watch the film if it is shown using more medias.
Production Issues
They could not get Geoffrey Rush at the beginning as his agent would not read his script, so they had to post the script for the film through his letter box, which is considered a bad thing to do in the film industry. Geoffrey then read the script and immediately liked it and took on the role. If they had not posted it through his letter box, or he had not decided to read it then they would not have one of the big stars they had hoped for.
The film's origins
The film origins from the original happening of the kings speech in 1939. "Seidler (the writer of the film) 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"
The finance
The film had two investors, Prescience Film Finance/ Aegis who put in almost $10 million and Molinare, invested $320k.
The production companies
The film was produced by Momentum Pictures and The Weinstein Company. The Weinstein Company are famous for pushing their films to be a success by marketing them, this is why The Kings Speech succeeded like it did, because Harvey Weinstein pushed this film.
Major Issues Facing British Film Makers
http://www.witteringproductions.com/documents/The_British_Film_Mainfesto.pdf
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