THETHE PORTRAIT OF THE DUKE
Kind: Satirical-democratic comedy
Directed by Roger Michell. Starring Jim Broadbent, Helen Mirren, Fion Whitehead, Heather Craney, James Wilby, Matthew Goode, John Heffernan
In 1965 the trial against such was held in London Kempton Bunton, accused of having stolen Goya’s portrait of the Duke of Wellington four years earlier (and then returned) to the National Gallery in Londonrecently bought by the government for 140 thousand pounds.
Helen Mirren and Jim Broadbent in “The Duke’s Portrait”.
Why had a 60-year-old taxi driver wanted to steal that painting? And was the official version really true? Rereading the real facts with a good dose of fantasy, the director of Notting Hill Roger Michell constructs a comedy that looks like something out of a 1950s albummade up of actors in a state of grace (here Jim Broadbent in the role of Kempton and Helen Mirren in those of his wife, both absolutely brilliant), intelligently sly dialogues (by Richard Bean and Clive Coleman) and the ability to ironize about the cornerstones of English culture, from the sacredness of the law to the founding values of their democracy (Kempton claims the freedom not to see public TV and therefore not to pay the license fee).
The tone is sympathetically disenchantedthe impeccably professional staging and there is also room for a few digs at the myth of Shakespeare: the ideal product to lift the spirit and smile of the sacredness made in England.
For those who want to (re) discover the pleasure of English comedy.
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