And not a moment too soon if you ask me!
It’s not often that you get to enjoy Jude Law in a role that makes him, according to the critics, “obese and oozy,” — The Guardian — and ‘regal, repugnant,” as Vulture called his performance as King Henry VIII. Alongside Alicia Vikander as Katherine Parr, the sixth and last wife of King Henry VIII, the pair featured in Karim Aïnouz’s Firebrand make for a fascinating watch. Anything Aïnouz touches always turns out to be fascinating.
Based on Elizabeth Fremantle’s 2013 novel Queen’s Gambit, the film is a moving portrait of a unique character in history that has previously remained untouched on the big screen.
Vikander and Law are aided in their performance by a supporting cast made up of Simon Russell Beale (House of the Dragon), Eddie Marsan (Ray Donovan), Ruby Bentall (The Serpent Queen), Bryony Hannah (Call the Midwife) and Sam Riley (Rebecca).
The synopsis for the film goes: “In blood-soaked Tudor England, Katherine Parr, the sixth and last wife of King Henry VIII, is named Regent while tyrant Henry is fighting overseas. Katherine has done everything she can to push for a new future based on her radical Protestant beliefs. When an increasingly ailing and paranoid King returns, he turns his fury on the radicals, charging Katherine’s childhood friend with treason and burning her at the stake. Horrified and grieving, but forced to deny it, Katherine finds herself fighting for her own survival.”
Firebrand is produced by Carolyn Marks Blackwood and Gabrielle Tana. Tana is the British Academy Award nominated producer behind Philomena, but also the directorial work of actor Ralph Fiennes — including the 2011 Coriolanus and The White Crow (2018).
She is also one of the producers on Aïnouz’s latest masterpiece Motel Destino, which premiered In Competition in Cannes this past May.
Aïnouz, for those who haven’t discovered his wondrous cinema yet, is an award-winning filmmaker and visual artist. He debuted as a director with Madame Satã in Cannes, in Un Certain Regard in 2002, where he also premiered The Invisible Life in 2019 — which won the top prize in Un Certain Regard.
The film will be released in the UK and Ireland by MetFilm Distribution, the distributing arm of MetFilm Group. They are a new boutique film distribution company with a curated slate of fiction and documentary titles, which have included Louis Garrel’s The Innocent and Gareth Davis’s Foe, starring Paul Mescal and Saoirse Ronan. They have also just released Wilding — which is turning out to be 2024’s biggest documentary, and upcoming, later in September is Cedric Kahn’s The Goldman Case.
Firebrand will open in the UK and Ireland on September 6th.
For more information on the release, check out MetFilm’s website.
Photo courtesy of MetFilm Group, used with permission.