The portrait of the duke on Rai 3: plot, cast, true story of the painting theft

Lhe history of the first (it’s unique) theft in the famous one National Gallery, London is the subject of the film The portrait of the Dukethis evening at 9.20pm on Rai 3. An incredible story that happened in the 1960s reconstructed with the amazing pair of English actors “Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren”. The solid Roger Michell directs. Which, despite telling a story from sixty years ago, he also reflects on highly topical issues.

The portrait of the Dukethe plot of the movie

England, 1961. Kempton Bumpton (Broadbent) is an incurable idealist about sixty years old. Pervaded by a strong civic sense spends time and energy promoting social battles for disadvantaged people.

He is married to Dorothy (Mirren)a housekeeper embittered by life supports the family financially disapproving of her husband’s “lifestyle”. In fact, Kempton writes plays that no one reads and pickets outside the BBC studios to abolish the license fee for the elderly and war veterans. In short, half the time is spent fighting, the rest looking for odd jobs.

To contribute to the family economy, his youngest son Jackie (Fionn Whitehead) thinks it best to steal the painting The Duke of Wellington by Francisco Goya from the National Gallery. And for Kempton – who became an accomplice – the trouble begins. But this is also the opportunity for the family to meet again and, for Dorothy, to understand, finally approving, the soul and thoughts of her husband.

The true story of the Goya theft

Incredible but true, a little fictionalized or not, on the night between 20 and 21 August 1961 Kempton Bunton, a pensioner living in Newcastle, arrives in London at the National Gallery and climbs with a simple staircase up to the men’s bathroom.

From here arrives at the second floor and enters the museum roomstaking advantage of the fact that the alarm system was turned off to allow cleaning of the floors. Steal the precious painting The Duke of Wellington by Francisco Goya, he goes home and hides it in the closet.

From that moment, despite many clues and various leads, the English police are stumbling in the dark and even goes so far as to imagine that the perpetrators are a gang of professionals specialized in art theft.

To the Reuters news agency, a ransom demand of only 140 thousand pounds arrives, to be donated to charity to pay the TV license fee for the less well-off. A ransom so absurd that Scotland Yard doesn’t even take it into consideration.

Four years pass and in May 1965, the English newspaper Daily Mirror receives an envelope with the receipt of a package left at Birmingham station depot. And in the package Goya’s painting is there. Five days later, the painting returns to the museum and Bumpton is arrested and then tried.

Only ten years ago thoughthe British National Archives they made the files public judicial. Discovering that it was John, one of Bunton’s sons, who actually carried out the theftand that the parent was only an accomplice.

A very British satire with an amazing cast

Directed by Roger Mitchell – director of the cult Notting Hill –, The portrait of the Duke And a comedy full of good feelings and irreverence which, although set sixty years ago, turns out to be incredibly timely.

Bringing it to the big screen a true story, told in the style of English satirethe director performs the excellent operation of bring together a surreal story but at the same time a cry of denunciation towards some fundamental values ​​of the United Kingdom that now seem lost. Especially after Brexit.

Like most British films, the film can boast a cast of amazing actors. Like the veterans Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren but also the young Fionn Whitehead, already seen in Dunkirk.

With a rhythmic and intelligent direction, Michell plays with the viewer’s attention. Building a puzzle film of great intensity where some shots fit together in an apparently random way. So as not to reveal the true epilogue of the film until the last scene.

iO Donna © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED