'The King's Speech'

THE ODD COUPLE:

Speech

An obscure and fascinating episode in British history is brought to life in this superbly acted drama. BRIAN MCFARLANE reflects on the remarkable relationship that developed between a stammering monarch and his speech therapist, and considers what responsibilities filmmakers have to the reality of their historical subjects. history. Whether the film influences one's reading of the book, or whether it is the other way round, the two make PREVIOUS: SPEECH THERAPIST LIONEL LOGUE (GEOFFREY RUSH); KING for some very provocative comparisons. GEORGE VI (COLIN FIRTH) 1 ; ELIZABETH (HELENA BONHAM CARTER) AND It is an interesting sidenote that David THE DUKE VISIT LIONEL 2: MYRTLE LOGUE (JENNIFER EHLE) Seidler, the film's screenwriter, is plan- ning a stage version in 2011. N the face of it, novelist J.M. Coetzee wouldn't The story's appearance across radio, seem to have much film and stage is only one of the intertex- common ground with the tual influences at play in one's viewing of problems of the British royal the new film. The historical events that family, but I was struck by form the background to the personal this sentence from his Diary of story are themselves significant in recent a Bad Year: 'The rule of succes- history, and have been the subject of sion is not a formula for identifying the innumerable studies that, to varying best ruler, it is a formula for conferring degrees, many viewers will have in mind. legitimacy on someone or other and As well, though, several recent films thus forestalling civil conflict.'' In the A complex intertextuality have drawn their narrative inspiration case of George VI, he never expected from true events. The most obvious ex- the line of succession would push him In 2009, BBC Radio 4 aired a play called ample in the present context is Stephen into top spot and he was ill-equipped A King's Speech, which dealt with Frears' The Queen (2006), a shrewd for the job, but he worked hard enough Lionel Logue's work in the matter of the and compassionate study of monarchy and lived long enough to justify this Duke of York's (later King George Vl's) under stress. Perhaps some viewers will baton-passing process. speech difficulties. This led his grand- also recall the popular 1978 television son Mark Logue to 'appreciate that his miniseries Edward & Mrs Simpson, His main problem was a very bad life and work could be of interest to a which dramatised Edward VIH's abdica- stammer that made public occasions far wider audience beyond [his] own tion (with a definitive impersonation from especially harrowing for him, exacerbat- family'.^ The following year, this episode Edward Fox) and the unwilling succes- ing a natural shyness. In coming to The in royal history was made the subject of sion of 'Bertie', who was pushed into King's Speech (Tom Hooper, 2010), I an ambitious Anglo-Australian produc- assuming the throne as George VI. had the unusual experience of finishing tion now called The King's Speech, the book of the same title just one hour to be directed by Hooper and with A more recent point of reference is before seeing the film.^ This compli- an all-star cast drawing on the acting director Tom Hooper's previous film. cated the experience of the film for me strength of the two producing coun- The Damned United (2009), based on in some interesting ways. The book had tries. In 2009, lain Canning, the film's the 44-day tenure of Brian Clough as only recently become available and had producer, approached Mark Logue, manager of top football club Leeds been written in the wake of the film, and in the spirit of adviser - 'Logue United. Those who have seen this film so it is not an adaptation from page to Family Consultant' is his credit - he may have in mind Hooper's way of mak- screen, but rather an elaboration in light conducted wide-ranging research into ing absorbing drama from true events. of the research surrounding the film's his grandfather's role. Drawing above In The Damned United, he dramatised central subject matter. I found it difficult all on Lionel Logue's 'vividly written Clough's takeover from the club's to view the film without thinking of what diaries'" and his correspondence with legendary manager Don Revie: Clough the book revealed about the king and the Duke/King, Mark came up with the disliked Leeds' dirty style of play and his speech therapist. Should this have absorbing book that details a remark- determined to change its image. In been irrelevant or not? able, if little-known, byway of British other words, there was an interest in

the processes and repercussions of 'the line of succession', a matter near the heart of The King's Speech. More generally, one thinks of how other films have dealt with actual events, includ- ing such recent examples as Balibo (Robert Connolly, 2009) and The Special Relationship (Richard Loncraine, 2010), in which the unstructured interplay of and chosen carefully what to stress and everyday life is fashioned into drama. VIII, very popular with the people (and form the what to soft-pedal about them. Personal especially with the ladies, several of background to and public histories are what the film My point is simply this: we rarely come whom had been his mistresses), fell goes to work on. the personal to a film with no prior knowledge of its for American divorcee Wallis Simpson. matter, and perhaps even more rarely In his famous renunciation speech he story are 'We've become actors!' does any film exist in a vacuum, with- told the anxious nation that he could themselves out setting up echoes of other films, no longer continue as king without significant in George V hates making the Christmas other texts, other events. Indeed, The 'the woman I love by my side', thus recent history, Day broadcast, complaining in the film King's Speech may have a richer and catapulting the diffident and unwilling and have been that these days of the emerging 'wire- more varied intertextuaiity than most. Bertie into the limelight of top job. His less' require kings to be vocal actors. the subject of unwillingness was partly a matter of This will of course be one of the film's History boys congenital shyness, but it was hugely innumerable key motifs in view of Bertie's fear of exacerbated by his speech defect. With studies that, public utterance. The film's opening im- Apart from all the resonances of other the woman he loved by his side (by then to varying age is, appropriately, a close-up shot of film texts that make themselves felt in Queen Elizabeth and later the Queen ^jrees, many an old-fashioned radio microphone. The The King's Speech, behind its character Mother) and with the help of Logue's viewers will announcer (a witty cameo from Adrian drama there is the palpable sense of a therapy, he persisted and became a Scarborough) intones 'the new inven- tumultuous historical background. At much respected monarch, giving the have in mind. tion of radio' by way of introducing the the personal level, the austere, authori- nation something like moral leadership Duke of York, Bertie (Colin Firth), who is tarian figure of the 'sailor king', George through the grim days of World War II. standing by looking very apprehensive. V was no one's idea of a loving father. Despite the comforting presence of his While he may have loved his family, he Bertie and Logue are the key figures wife Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter), had no skill in making his affection felt, in the personal drama of the film, but the speech is a disaster. After Bertie's which cannot have given poor stam- those other historical personages - physician recommends the relaxing mering Bertie much confidence. At the George V, Queen Mary, Edward VIII, Mrs powers of smoking and a mouth full of public level, as England recovered first Simpson, Queen Elizabeth, the prime marbles, Elizabeth seeks out Australian from World War I and then from the ministers Chamberlain and Churchill, speech therapist Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Depression, George V died. and others - all bring memories of their Rush). And thus the film's central drama roles in recent history. The filmmakers is set in motion. Furthermore, the country stumbled into have necessarily given coherent pres- the crisis of the abdication. Edward ences to all of these figures in the film. Logue insists that he will 'need trust and

©ATOM I Metro Magazine 168» 11 WLAHSTRAUAN & NEW ZEALAND J 9 total equality', leading Elizabeth to tell of York. The mere act of his calling the nothing so fine since The Wings of the liim, 'You're awfully sure of yourself.' This In Colin Firth Duke 'Bertie' is a prime example of Dove (lain Softley, 1997), steely determi- sequence is followed by brief contrasting and Geoffrey what I mean: certainly in fVlark Logue's nation and wifely solicitude vying for prec- interludes of domestic intimacy: Bertie Rush the film account, his grandfather made clear that edence in the interests of Bertie's growing with his wife and daughters, and Logue the Duke would have to visit his rooms in confidence, with a nicely waspish aside has two of with his wife and sons. These segments Harley Street for treatment, but he would about Mrs Simpson's 'certain skills, ac- seem to be the film's way of announcing the world s never have insisted to the Duchess that quired in an establishment in Shanghai'. the total (dramatic) equality that must exist best actors at it has to be 'my game, my turf, my rules'. Eve Best is an astonishing look-alike as between its two protagonists, if not quite this moment, It is, in the light of the social reality of the basilisk-eyed divorcee whom the in the way that Logue imagines. and both are the time, unlikely that Logue would have Duchess ignores; Guy Pearce is an aptly been quite so quick to assert his equality handsome, feckless Edward; and the par- at their best The real heart of the film is, then, in as he does in Rush's compelling and ents are magisterially incarnated in short here. Logue's dealings with the future mon- vivacious account of the man. studies by Michael Gambon as George arch. It is Logue's function to help Bertie V and Claire Bloom as Queen Mary, who become the sort of 'actor' his father The filmmakers have clearly decided falis to her knees in obeisance before has in mind, and the film is essentially that, for the sake of dramatic contrast, Edward when her husband dies. There structured around meetings between the they would make Logue a much less is aiso Derek Jacobi (Archbishop Lang), two men, in which Logue helps Bertie to respectful character than he seems to Jennifer Ehie (Mrs Logue), David Bamber overcome his speech defect, and public have been. As Mark Logue writes in as a theatre director making snide re- occasions, where Bertie's progress summary, 'Indeed, to a modern reader, marks about 'the coionies' when amateur as a royal actor can be observed. The the tone Logue adopts when writing of actor Logue auditions for Richard III, and dramatic impulse is in Bertie's graduai the King can seem fawning.'^ This raises a vocaliy uncanny Churchill from Timothy mastering of the techniques Logue has the question of what responsibilities Spaii. i mention aii these people because taught him; perhaps surprisingly, these filmmakers have to the actuality of their this is one of the most strongly cast films involve therapeutic bursts of four-Ietfer historical subjects, as distinct from those in years, and because there is complex words that prove cathartic for deal- that might pertain to a case of adapting interest in considering the extent to which ing with Bertie's frustrations. All this is a fiction. This will not matter to view- the actors' personae are melded to what treated without sentimentality as Bertie ers who don't read the book just before we know of the public figures they are moves towards greater public confi- seeing the film, but those who do wili representing. dence, culminating in a wartime Christ- bring to the iatter a strong sense of a mas speech. Hooper and Seidler avoid much more deferential Logue - just as The King's Speech might have become the inviting trap of the feel-good in the determined to do his job to the best of a mere Sunday-night TV drama, but it interests of the genuinely inspirational. his ability but within the parameters of a doesn't: it is persistently engrossing historically more probable commoner- as it avoids cosiness and maintains a In Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush the film royal relationship. capacity to disconcert. In addition to the has two of the world's best actors at this major virtues of acting, the film also has moment, and both are at their best here. One sees what Hooper and Seidler were Eve Stewart's production design (a role Firth, incomprehensibly overlooked at up to in this matter. There is actually spe- she also filled on Hooper's The Damned the Oscars last year for his grief-stricken cific reference to the King's ignorance of United) and Jenny Beaven's costumes, academic in A Single Man (Tom Ford, how 'the people' live and how little they which together evoke period and class 2009), has given a string of venturesome know of his life. It's as if the film wants associations with unerring eyes for performances over the past decade, not to explore this gap of understanding, to detail. Just iook at the Duchess idly flick- trading on his looks as many a simi- suggest a common humanity, a common ing through the pages of The Illustrated iariy equipped actor might. His subtle, capacity for friendship. Perhaps, too, the London News as she waits for Bertie to heartbreaking work in A Single Man is fiimmakers want to point to the way the finish his session with Logue, or any of possibly outdone here by his complexly coionies were iosing any residual subser- her discreet ensembles in their pastel nuanced study of the man who would vience to a distant monarchy. If so, this shades. These are creative talents that be king despite his reluctance. The way function is proleptic: many Australians know what they're about - as does the frustration shades into aggression, the would still refer to England as 'home' film at iarge. way it softens in response to Elizabeth's for a decade or more after the events of wifely solicitude, the way it registers a this film. What concerns me here is the Brian McFariane is Adjunct Associate cautiously growing confidence on state degree of licence the 'adapter' of a real- Professor at Monash University. His most occasions: in these and other situations life situation can reasonabiy take in order recent book is his memoir, Real and Reel: Firth offers a wonderful display of what to make, say, a political or other cultural The education of a film obsessive and critic film acting can achieve. point. Such concerns inevitably fol- (Sid Harta, 2010). • lowed my response to Rush's engaging There is a very interesting shift in the performance, which seems to have little Endnotes way the film presents Logue's charac- to do with the actual man's demeanour ' J.M. Coetzee, Diary ota Bad Year, London, Viking, ter in comparison with the figure that and attitudes. 2007, p. 14. emerges in his grandson's book and its ^ Mark Logue & Petef Conradi, The King's Speech, primary source material - Logue's own The film's two stars are surrounded by a London, Quercus, 2010, diaries. The film coarsens Logue from his very impressive cast that brings the other ^ ibid.,p.x. very first appearance, when he comes historicai figures (less problematically) " ibid.,p.xi. out of the toilet to greet the Duchess to life. Helena Bonham Carter has done 5 ibld.,p.228.