55th Anniversary of The Lion in Winter
On October 30, 1968, Anthony Harvey's film "The Lion in Winter" was released in the United States.
The film's script is based on the 1966 play by American playwright James Goldman, which describes the events that took place in the family of King Henry II of England, his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine, their children and guests in December 1183. The play premiered on Broadway at the Ambassador Theater on March 3, 1966. Goldman's play was not particularly successful commercially. It lasted only 92 performances and generated $150,000 in losses. However, producer Martin Poll liked the play enormously and hired Goldman to develop the film script. The film was directed by Anthony Harvey, who by that time had only one film to his name.
Goldman's play and, in particular, the role of Eleanor of Aquitaine in the future film were of particular importance for Katharine Hepburn: among her ancestors were both children born from Eleanor's marriage with Louis VII, King of France, and from Eleanor's marriage to Henry II, King of England . A few words about this undoubtedly great historical figure. Her first husband was the French king Louis VII. But, since only girls were born from this marriage, the Pope annulled this marriage, which allowed Eleanor to marry the English king Henry II. To him she bore five boys: William, Earl of Poitiers, Henry the "Young King", who ruled England under his father (both died before the story described by Goldman began); Richard (later King Richard I the Lionheart), Geoffrey, Duke of Brittany, and John (later King John, the villain of the Robin Hood tales). She was indeed jailed for 15 years for leading a rebellion against her husband. She survived him and, thanks to her beauty, sophistication, political acumen and strength (unusual for a woman of her time), came to be considered one of the most important and influential women in history. She was the wife and mother of five kings, four of whom are key figures in the story. She also had 5 daughters: 2 countesses from Louis, a duchess and 2 queens from Henry. When her son Richard I the Lionheart, returning to England after the Third Crusade, was captured in Austria, she, using her influence, was able to free him.
Katharine Hepburn, who did not tolerate drunkenness, had to restrain herself so as not to create scandals over the constant drinking of famous alcoholics Peter O'Toole and Anthony Hopkins. However, one time she couldn’t restrain herself and told O’Toole: “When I was just starting my acting career, my agent told me: ‘Never work with children or animals,’ but you, Peter, are both.” However, the relationship between these two great actors on the set was more reminiscent of the relationship between mother and son. Long before filming the film, O'Toole literally idolized Katharine Hepburn and even named his daughter, born in 1960, in her honor. And Katharine Hepburn in 1962 persuaded Sam Spiegel, the producer of the film "Lawrence of Arabia", to cast the then little-known Peter O'Toole in the lead role, and this role brought O'Toole worldwide fame.
However, there is nothing surprising in such relationships. After all, at the time of filming, Hepburn was 61 years old (like the real Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1183), and O'Toole was only 36. However, the real King Henry II was also younger than his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, but not by 25 years, but only by eleven.
Martin Poll's risky decision to make a film based on a play that brought losses turned out to be completely justified. With a budget of $4 million, the film's box office gross exceeded $22 million. Even Soviet moviegoers contributed to the financial success of the film: in 1972, the film attracted 4.2 million moviegoers in Soviet cinemas.
Along with its commercial success, Anthony Harvey's film "The Lion in Winter" also had impressive festival success. In early 1969, he received 7 Golden Globe Award nominations, winning two: Best Leading Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama (Peter O'Toole) and Best Motion Picture - Drama. The Lion in Winter then received 7 Academy Award nominations, winning in three categories: Best Leading Actress (Katharine Hepburn, along with Barbra Streisand for her role in "Funny Girl"), Best Screenplay and Best Music.
In the same 1969, British Film Academicians nominated Anthony Harvey's film "The Lion in Winter" in 8 categories, but awarded their BAFTA award only to Katharine Hepburn as Best Actress. A year later, the Italian Film Academy awarded its David di Donatello Award to Martin Poll as Best Foreign Producer.
The guru of American film criticism, Roger Ebert, who rated the film with the maximum 4 stars in his system, noted the script as the main advantage of the film. In his words,
"One of the joys which movies provide too rarely is the opportunity to see a literate script handled intelligently. The Lion in Winter triumphs at that difficult task..."
However, one cannot fail to note the abundance of historical inaccuracies that this picture suffers from. For example, a Christmas tree decorated with garlands. Although, in 1183 this was considered a pagan custom and was persecuted by the church. The film uses the title "Your Majesty", which was introduced much later. The film mentions syphilis, although it appeared in Europe only 300 years after the events described. Well, and so on. But, honestly, these and other inaccuracies do not detract from the merits of the picture.
Despite the fact that more than half a century has passed since the release of Anthony Harvey's film "The Lion in Winter", and during this time many historical and pseudo-historical films have appeared, the film is very popular among modern moviegoers, as evidenced by its ratings on the IMDB and Kinopoisk websites . 69% of users of these sites gave the film ratings from 8 to 10. Thanks to this indicator and the above, the film's rating according to FilmGourmand was 8,573, which allowed it to take 295th Rank in the Golden Thousand.
