Cinema
Henry V
Laurence Olivier · 1944
Synopsis
A poster announces a performance by the Lord Chamberlain's company for the first of May 1600. The camera flies over a model of London, finds the Globe Theatre and descends inside, where the audience is settling in. The Chorus enters and asks whether this cockpit can hold the vast fields of France, and begs the audience to set its imagination to work. On stage, two prelates discuss the affairs of the kingdom, then the king enters, and an ambassador brings him a gift from the Dauphin.
Context
The film was made to sustain the morale of a country at war and was partly financed by the government; it opened in London on 22 November 1944 and was dedicated to the commandos and airborne troops. It opens in a reconstruction of the Globe theatre, then widens the space until it reaches the real landscape, the court scenes borrowing their colours from the illuminations of a French book of hours. The battle was shot in 1943 at the Powerscourt estate, in County Wicklow, in neutral Ireland, with hundreds of horses and local riders: the Ministry of Information saw in it a way of influencing Irish opinion.
Who it is for
Two hours seventeen minutes, in the English of Shakespeare's time, subtitled. The text is abridged: several scenes, including that of the traitors, have been cut.
Prizes and reception
Honorary Oscar presented to Olivier in 1947 for having been actor, producer and director of the film all at once; the film was nominated four times.
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